*UPDATE JAN 2025*

Thanking everyone who has donated so far! As you can see the target has changed as, over the course of a year, after lots of research and fact finding, I have managed to locate different clinics which offer a more targeted approach to treating my type of cancer and better results. However, these are slightly more costly and will involve more travel.

I will be taking part in a sponsored walk in the Peak district this month to raise funds for this so please share this far and wide and if you wish to join let me know! So much love and gratitude - Melissa 🙏🏾💕

In January 2024 I was given the life changing and devasting news that I have a rare form of cancer, known as neuroendocrine cancer. At the age of 35, having had a few minor symptoms, to say it was a shock was an understatement!

As a single parent to my two precious daughters, this news couldn‘t be more terrifying. At the ages of only four and fourteen (now five and fifteen), the thought of not being here for them is every mother’s worst nightmare. The weeks after I was diagnosed were a blur as I tried to get to grips with this diagnoses and what it meant for us all as a family.

I learnt that this cancer is known as the ‘silent killer’ due to the fact that often patients don’t present with symptoms until the cancer has progressed and spread to other parts of the body. This is unfortunately the situation for me. Stage 3, meaning it has spread from the primary location (thought to be my lungs) to the lymph nodes in my chest and neck, my left breast and my brain. Known as an atypical bronchial carcinoid, this form of neuroendocrine cancer is also more aggressive and doesn‘t respond as well to conventional types of treatment such as chemotherapy. I have been told that this cancer is not curable but treatable. That I am just terribly unlucky to have it at this age and such a rare presentation of a rare type of cancer that makes it very difficult to treat. It would seem there are very limited options for me in terms of treatment.

So after much reading and research, it led me to look overseas for other treatment methods on offer for lung neuroendocrine cancer. There are clinics in Germany, Mexico and the US that offer me some hope with oncological treatments, many of which are not yet offered here in the UK or on the NHS. They also provide intergretive medicine that can help better your prognosis and chances of remission/survival. These types of treatment are standard in some countries but unfortunately aren't offered on the NHS in this country. I would have access to immunotherapy, which is often the first line of treatment for my type of cancer, or it is used alongside chemotherapy for better results. I would be able to access genetic testing of the cancer, needed to build me a cancer vaccine, which could be a potential treatment for my disease.

There is also the possibility of surgery, which is not an option here for me in the UK at present. Unfortunately these options are costly. Both clinics charge around £30,000 for treatments with the average patient needing between 3-6 treatment sessions. I would also need to fund my travel and accommodation costs.

I know this is a lot of money and anyone who knows me knows how difficult it is for me to ask of people like this. Particularly about something like this. I am generally a private person and health is a personal issue for many, but I am willing to lay it all on the line if it is going to give me a fighting chance of getting back to health. I am willing to do anything if it means I can be here a while longer for my girls. So please help me in this. It really is true, every little helps so please share far and wide. Please help me be here to raise my girls, as they need their mother. I also have so much more to give to this world, so much I want to give back. I believe this cancer was sent to me as a lesson not to kill me, but to get through this I do need your support. So I am calling on you, my community. Help to give me life and keep my family together 🙏🏽❤️