Funding Nathalie's Cancer Treatment
Donation protected
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read about our mum's story.
Nathalie, 57, is a Special Educational Needs and Foreign language Teacher from County Durham and a mother to a daughter and 3 sons. In 2018 she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, an exceptionally rare and aggressive form of cancer which has now spread to her liver. If left untreated, the cancer will continue to spread and effect her vital liver functions and within a few months will prove fatal.
The life saving treatment she requires (chemosatursation) would normally be available through the NHS clinical trials however due to COVID-19, all funding has stopped and her care so far has suffered many delays and cancellations. The treatment she so desperately needs is still available to her but only if she pays privately which is very expensive.
Her treatment will allow her to see her youngest sons graduate from university, and to see her eldest son and his fiancé tie the knot early next year.
This is why we have set up this fundraising page in the hope that we can raise £120,000 together to save our mum.
Our mum’s story
This all started one morning when mum woke up and found that she couldn’t see properly out of her right eye. She tried to call the opticians to get an emergency appointment but was told there would be a 10 day wait. Mum instinctively knew something wasn’t right and took herself to the A&E. After a series of routine tests, she was told that she was fine and it was probably a side effect of a migraine. Having suffered plenty of migraines in the past, mum knew this was something else and insisted on being seen by a specialist.
She was sent to the eye clinic to book an appointment for a future date but thankfully due to a miscommunication, mum was seen that same day. After further examinations, the specialist confirmed that he thought it was a cancer in her eye and referred her to Sheffield.
After more scans and waiting, the specialists in Sheffield decided the best course of action would be to for mum to have a radioactive plaque fitted on her eye. She went through with this and had to be in isolation for one week. For a while she was ok but then the side effects started from the radiation. Fluid built up behind retina gave her constant pain, double vision and loss of sight but she was alive!
The scans that followed showed that most of the cancer had been effectively treated and was now benign, with the exception of a small region that was neutral, meaning it could start growing again but for now, she was fine.
We all breathed a massive sigh of relief and stated to enjoy life again, welcoming her first granddaughter into the world and spending as much quality time with her children as possible.
Then COVID-19 happened!
Our mum was meant to be getting scanned every 6 months to make sure that it hadn’t grown again or worse, spread elsewhere in her body. Whilst the country was tackling the pandemic, contact between our mum and the consultants was becoming less and less reliable, and resulted in delayed meetings, scans and even cancelled appointments.
When she finally did get her routine scan, 6 months late, it showed that it had now spread to her liver.
She was referred to Newcastle and again had to wait for more scans, a biopsy and follow-up appointments to be then told that they couldn’t operate as there are now too many tumours in her liver.
Having a cancer that is rare (6 in 1 million) severely limits mum to what treatment she can have as there isn’t a lot of research available and the treatments that are available, can be extremely hard to access.
Up until Covid-19, a clinical trial was available through the NHS for a type of treatment called Chemosaturation Therapy which is proving to be the most effective treatment for occular melanoma metastases in the liver that we currently have available.
A life-saving opportunity
Very recently, we have been given the opportunity to have this treatment done privately in Southampton. Mum is a good candidate for the treatment and will be starting in the very near future. This is very costly but it’s mums best hope.
Our mum is so brave and has fought so hard already. She has dedicated her life to helping others and she’s the kindest, most thoughtful and selfless person we know. She is an amazing mum and grandma and she is loved beyond words. She has always been so healthy and fit so this has come as a huge shock and the unfairness of it all is hard to take.
We feel that she has been massively let down by the system that was in place to help her – from that initial appointment at the opticians the year before where her ocular melanoma was misdiagnosed as a harmless freckle, to the delayed meetings, scans and cancelled appointments since Covid-19 started.
Despite all that this year has challenged us with, we are hopeful that clinical trials for this dreadful disease will resume as soon as possible however, for our mum, there just isn't time and this remains our only hope of saving her.
We would be eternally grateful for any fundraising efforts or donation contributions no matter how big or small. Please feel free to share this page with whomever you think might like to help us.
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch please contact us by email at:
[email redacted]
Thank you for taking the time to read about our mum's story.
Nathalie, 57, is a Special Educational Needs and Foreign language Teacher from County Durham and a mother to a daughter and 3 sons. In 2018 she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, an exceptionally rare and aggressive form of cancer which has now spread to her liver. If left untreated, the cancer will continue to spread and effect her vital liver functions and within a few months will prove fatal.
The life saving treatment she requires (chemosatursation) would normally be available through the NHS clinical trials however due to COVID-19, all funding has stopped and her care so far has suffered many delays and cancellations. The treatment she so desperately needs is still available to her but only if she pays privately which is very expensive.
Her treatment will allow her to see her youngest sons graduate from university, and to see her eldest son and his fiancé tie the knot early next year.
This is why we have set up this fundraising page in the hope that we can raise £120,000 together to save our mum.
Our mum’s story
This all started one morning when mum woke up and found that she couldn’t see properly out of her right eye. She tried to call the opticians to get an emergency appointment but was told there would be a 10 day wait. Mum instinctively knew something wasn’t right and took herself to the A&E. After a series of routine tests, she was told that she was fine and it was probably a side effect of a migraine. Having suffered plenty of migraines in the past, mum knew this was something else and insisted on being seen by a specialist.
She was sent to the eye clinic to book an appointment for a future date but thankfully due to a miscommunication, mum was seen that same day. After further examinations, the specialist confirmed that he thought it was a cancer in her eye and referred her to Sheffield.
After more scans and waiting, the specialists in Sheffield decided the best course of action would be to for mum to have a radioactive plaque fitted on her eye. She went through with this and had to be in isolation for one week. For a while she was ok but then the side effects started from the radiation. Fluid built up behind retina gave her constant pain, double vision and loss of sight but she was alive!
The scans that followed showed that most of the cancer had been effectively treated and was now benign, with the exception of a small region that was neutral, meaning it could start growing again but for now, she was fine.
We all breathed a massive sigh of relief and stated to enjoy life again, welcoming her first granddaughter into the world and spending as much quality time with her children as possible.
Then COVID-19 happened!
Our mum was meant to be getting scanned every 6 months to make sure that it hadn’t grown again or worse, spread elsewhere in her body. Whilst the country was tackling the pandemic, contact between our mum and the consultants was becoming less and less reliable, and resulted in delayed meetings, scans and even cancelled appointments.
When she finally did get her routine scan, 6 months late, it showed that it had now spread to her liver.
She was referred to Newcastle and again had to wait for more scans, a biopsy and follow-up appointments to be then told that they couldn’t operate as there are now too many tumours in her liver.
Having a cancer that is rare (6 in 1 million) severely limits mum to what treatment she can have as there isn’t a lot of research available and the treatments that are available, can be extremely hard to access.
Up until Covid-19, a clinical trial was available through the NHS for a type of treatment called Chemosaturation Therapy which is proving to be the most effective treatment for occular melanoma metastases in the liver that we currently have available.
A life-saving opportunity
Very recently, we have been given the opportunity to have this treatment done privately in Southampton. Mum is a good candidate for the treatment and will be starting in the very near future. This is very costly but it’s mums best hope.
Our mum is so brave and has fought so hard already. She has dedicated her life to helping others and she’s the kindest, most thoughtful and selfless person we know. She is an amazing mum and grandma and she is loved beyond words. She has always been so healthy and fit so this has come as a huge shock and the unfairness of it all is hard to take.
We feel that she has been massively let down by the system that was in place to help her – from that initial appointment at the opticians the year before where her ocular melanoma was misdiagnosed as a harmless freckle, to the delayed meetings, scans and cancelled appointments since Covid-19 started.
Despite all that this year has challenged us with, we are hopeful that clinical trials for this dreadful disease will resume as soon as possible however, for our mum, there just isn't time and this remains our only hope of saving her.
We would be eternally grateful for any fundraising efforts or donation contributions no matter how big or small. Please feel free to share this page with whomever you think might like to help us.
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch please contact us by email at:
[email redacted]
Fundraising team: Kayleigh & Antoine (2)
Antoine Eddison
Organizer
England
Kayleigh Fearn
Team member
