New Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/emmabella

My beautiful, kind, lovely Mum has been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, metastatic ocular melanoma.

In 2009, at just 35 years old my Mum found out she had ocular melanoma in her left eye. She had her whole eye removed, leaving her completely blind in her left eye.

We were told that if the cancer were to return it would most likely go to her liver and this happens in 50% of people that get ocular melanoma.

Thirteen years later, in October 2022, my Mum had her yearly liver scan. Something that she was told was no longer necessary but she was persistent with doctors she still wanted to have.

Tragically, the scan showed that the melanoma my Mum was diagnosed with thirteen years ago has returned and metastasised to her liver. This is considered stage 4, incurable cancer.

Almost all cancer treatments are completely ineffective in metastatic ocular melanoma.

My Mum was offered immunotherapy at Southampton General Hospital with the aim of trying to control the tumours in order to give my Mum more time. Sadly, as it does with many other patients, the immunotherapy made her very unwell and her liver was unable to cope and started to fail. My Mum has been told she cannot have any more immunotherapy treatment and there are no other available treatment options. She was treated with steroids and immunosuppressants to try and counteract the damage the immunotherapy has done to her liver. Thankfully she is feeling a lot better now that her liver is starting to recover from the immunotherapy, however the cancer continues to grow rapidly.

To look at my Mum, you would never know what she is going through. She is 48 years old and she is as healthy and active as she has been her whole life. My Mum has so much life to live but is being told there is nothing that can be done to help her. Doctors have told her that she has just 6-12 months to live.

There is a revolutionary treatment, Chemosaturation that has been shown to be affective in treating metastatic ocular melanoma but it is not available on the NHS. The cost of the treatment is a staggering £240,000 and will need to be self funded.

We need a minimum of £120,000 for three rounds of treatment but we need to have £80,000 of this in the next 6 weeks (the first week of May 2023) to start two rounds of treatment asap before the cancer progresses too far. Then depending on how the treatment goes we are looking at needing up to a further three rounds. Each round costs £40,000 and it’s possible that my Mum may need six rounds in total so £240,000!

We would be so incredibly grateful if you are able to support us in funding this treatment for my Mum. Anyone that knows my Mum knows what a beautiful, kind, and lovely person she is. She is only 48 years old. She is the most amazing mum to me, my sister, my two teenage brothers, and our three little dogs that adore her so much! We need her here with us. She has so much life to live and love to give.

Some information about Chemosaturation:

Chemosaturation has shown success in almost 90% of patients by either providing tumour stability, reducing tumour load or in some cases, almost removing the patient’s cancer completely.

In 2021, NICE approved chemosaturation as a safe and effective treatment for improving overall survival.

Worldwide data obtained by trials has shown that it has a high response rate and improves the control of metastatic ocular melanoma.

Chemosaturation can help maintain quality of life as symptoms are typically much more easily managed than many other cancer treatments.

Post chemosaturation, patients can live symptom-free and experience a prolonging of life that may not be possible without this treatment.

I can’t imagine life without my Mum. This is our biggest hope of keeping her here with us where she belongs.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Emma

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