Mairi Claire, our incredible and inspirational sister, has been on a long and challenging journey with cancer over the last 12 years.

Following a scan in October 2020, Mairi Claire was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, just five months after giving birth to her absolute world, Patrick. Since then, she has spent whatever free time she has researching and learning more about her cancer, and has taken an integrative and metabolic approach in a bid to heal her body. As you can imagine, this has been an incredibly challenging process but one which has demonstrated her immense courage, determination and positive attitude. Throughout this long journey, she has been an inspiration to her friends and family.

Currently, we find ourselves at a point where the standard of care treatment available on the NHS is no longer effective. Chemotherapy can really take its toll on the body and with a (very active!) two year old to think of, Mairi Claire has been researching and working with many specialists to find an integrative approach to treatment that will target the cancerous cells more effectively.

With all this in mind, Mairi Claire will undergo treatment at the Chemothermia Clinic in Istanbul for a minimum of 3 months, which offers groundbreaking treatment that isn’t currently available in the UK. It is a decision that hasn’t been made lightly, particularly as it will mean leaving Patrick, who she has never been apart from, for days at a time. The treatment she will go through will also be intensive and exhausting, but it is exactly what Mairi Claire urgently needs at this point to target the cancer more directly. Following this treatment, we hope that Mairi Claire will then be able to receive immunotherapy at another clinic and ultimately give her the best chance of success.

Many of our lovely friends have expressed that they want to help in any way that they can and have encouraged us to set up this crowdfund to help contribute towards the financial aspect of the treatment and regular travel costs.

We know that treatment could be ongoing, so any contribution at all or shares on social media would mean more to us than you could ever imagine and it would mean that Mairi Claire can start this treatment that she urgently needs right away. Thank you so much! xxx

UPDATE 2...

Thanks so much to everyone who has donated, shared and organised fundraisers - we’ve now not only reached, but surpassed our target which will allow us to continue with the treatment. We are so grateful to each and everyone of you!

A lot has gone on over the last few weeks, there are just so many people to thank…

🧚‍♀️🧚Our friends at Little World Newtown-Crommelin held a magical event that we would have loved to have been able to make it over for - thanks so much Sean, Louise and everyone who helped make this event the success it was 😊

☕️ We were in Turkey when the coffee mornings at St Mary’s University College and Con Magees Events were held - thank you to all the organisers of what looked to be amazing mornings, and thanks to everyone who came along - absolutely blown away by the amounts raised.

Children who Mairi Claire taught at Langley and who Joel taught at King Edwards have been very busy baking and raising money with their own cake sales too, whilst others have taken part in the Junior Great North Run and ran their own mini GNR on the beach to help fundraise, thank you all so much!🧁 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃

🃏Thanks so much to the Mc Mullans Central Bar Cushendall for hosting lots of fundraisers, including most recently a poker night - we hope you all had a good nights craic ♣️

Many many miles have been covered over the last few weeks - our brother in law Jordn Routledge has cycled 80km, has run the GNR, and completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks TWICE 🏔 🏔 🏔 , our neighbour Lee also ran the GNR and Jake Churchill will be running the Amsterdam marathon this weekend (no pressure Jake 😉)

AND… this weekend our wonderful friends walked 100 miles from Leeds to Newcastle to raise an incredible £6770!!! It was so lovely to see you all at the very official finishing line 🧻

Honestly, we are so overwhelmed with the amazing efforts made, the support and the generosity of you all - there’s a lot of good in the world 💕

If I have forgotten to thank anyone here, please know it’s a little oversight and I’m truly grateful to you 🙏

All your kind and thoughtful words have kept Mairi Claire going and lifted her. She is doing well with the treatment but is very tired as you can imagine - luckily we’ve had a little helper on hand this weekend on juicing duties 💚