Treatment for Susie
Donation protected
I'm supposed to be enjoying the best years of my life with my husband Leo and young children, Albie (6) and Edith (3) but the whole of this year has been filled with pain and fear. Fear that I won't be able to see my children grow up or even reach their next birthdays. In 2018, just 3 weeks after having Edith, I found a lump. The doctors weren't worried but when the results came back it showed that it was in fact Breast Cancer....Triple Negative Breast Cancer...the more rare and hardest to treat kind. Over the next year, with a 3 year old and a new baby, I went through several rounds of Chemo and had a double mastectomy. It was so hard but my amazing family looked after me and the little ones when I couldn't.
We thought we could relax but just before Christmas last year we had the devestating news that it had returned in my lungs. Even though it was a very small tumour at that point I was now classed as Stage 4. When you have stage 4 triple negative breast cancer there are no positive words to be heard from an oncologist. I felt completely written off and the treatment offered was classed as palative care. That was the worst of all oncologist meetings so far....feeling absolutely fine and being told I had about 12 months to live. All I could think about was my children. I don't want to leave them. I don't want their life to revolve around the fact that their mommy died when they were so young and that is what is pushing us all forward today.
We started researching everything we could and after some time we decided to travel to Dr Jason Williams in Mexico for cutting edge immunotherapy. This was not palative care but treatment with the possibility of it being curative! We had managed to put savings aside over the years and so were able to pay for this trip in the hope that one trip would be enough. Unfortunately my latest scan results did not show what we had hoped for and the cancer is progressing. The doctors we've consulted with privately are still confident that we can bring this cancer under control but the cost can be approximately £120,000. Such a huge amount of money that we just don't have.
Having spent our savings on the first treatment it is really difficult to make the next right treatment decision. Of course I'm going to do what gives me the best chance to stay with my family but I also do not want to leave them struggling because we spent every last penny trying to make me better. I need to know they will be ok whether I'm here or not. Saying that, we are still being positive, we believe this can be controlled, we just haven't managed it yet. I don't like to ask people for things but we've managed to come so far and now is the time that we would really appreciate your help. What ever you may be able to afford will help me to get the best treatment available and if you aren't in a position to then please send some positive thoughts our way ✌️ I'm not expecting to raise this massive amount but every little really will help.
Sending love to everyone
Thank you so much for reading ❤️
Fundraising team: Fundraising team (24)
Susannah Payne
Organizer
England
Alison Watson
Team member
Andrew Wootton
Team member
Claire Maclachlan
Team member
Dan Spier
Team member