Hello everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to visit my just giving page.
I am running the 2010 London Marathon for a very special cause close to my heart.
The BRT (Brain Research Trust) is one of the UK's leading charities in the field of neurological research. They provide funding to support research into the treatment, prevention, and cure, of neurological diseases and conditions such as: Brain Tumours, Alzheimer's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Stroke.
This charity is important to me because they provide essential funding and research into a disease which I have been affected by. In January 2008 I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. No matter how unwell you are feeling, and no matter how much you feel that something is wrong with you, nothing can prepare you for the words, when the Dr tells you, "I’m sorry it's not good news............." I remember the day I was diagnosed like it was yesterday. I remember walking into the room with my family, and seeing the sombre looks on the Drs faces. My mum says the colour drained from my face when the Consultant told me, I just remember feeling very sick and needing to lye down. I was stood up at the time (not a good idea!) so I knelt on the floor and put my head on the chair.
It was a 3x4inch tumour behind my right eye. The Drs weren’t sure of the grade so they preformed a biopsy operation on me, and after a few days I was sent home to wait for the results. After an anxious 2 weeks I was called back to the hospital, where they told me I had a grade 2 astrocytomer and that I was scheduled in for a craniotomy in 2 weeks time.
Back in the hospital I had my second operation, a craniotomy. This lasted for 6 hours. They managed to remove about 75% of the tumour, the rest was in a place too dangerous to touch. I had a 9inch incision cut with 47 staples in the back of my head. They kept me in for about 10 days, and then I was discharged to await further news from my oncologist.
On my return to the hospital to meet my oncologist, I was informed that I would be under-going a course of radiotherapy. It was to be everyday for 5 weeks. This was by far the most difficult part of my treatment. I had to lye on a table with a specially made mask over my face and clipped to the table to keep my head still. The machine then moved around me. These daily sessions only lasted a few minutes but the effects were profound. I started to feel very tired and weak, and my hair started to fall out. I tried to keep reminding myself of the positives, that this should kill the abnormal tumour cells and stop them from growing but it’s hard when you feel the life you know slip away, and a new, uncertain one in its place. At that time no one can tell you anything. No one knows if the radiotherapy will work and if you will ever have the chance of having a 'normal' life again.
Well, I have realised now that 'normal' is never quite the same again. While I slowly recovered and began to pick up the pieces of an ordinary life, in the wake of such an experience, ordinary life is no longer something I take for granted. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and while at the time there was pain, disappointment, fear, depression and scant hope, now I see things with a broader horizon. I don't take life for granted and I appreciate being here today. Brain Tumours are a relatively unknown cancer and yet they account for more deaths among children and young people under 40, than any other type of cancer.
I’d like to give something back, please help me by supporting me on the London Marathon.
Thank you.
Natalie
Some Facts and Figures about Brain Tumours.
Figures released by Brain Tumour Research show that the number of children dying from a brain tumour in 2007 was 33% higher than in 2001; child deaths from leukaemia were 39% lower than in 2001 (Office of National Statistics, Mortality
Statistics: Deaths registered in 2007).
More children and people under the age of 40 die from a brain tumour in the than any other form of cancer. Brain tumours have overtaken leukaemia as the leading cause of cancer death in children. 65% more women die from a brain tumour than from cervical cancer (Ibid).
Despite these statistics, brain tumour research is seriously under-funded and has not received the same attention as other cancers. Thanks to the extraordinary work of Leukaemia Research and other charities, higher profile cancers generate more than 20 times the funding of brain cancer (3). Brain tumours receive less than 1% of the national spend on cancer research in the .
3) For example, Leukaemia Research raises around £20million a year while brain tumour charities raise around £2million a year between them. See also Cancer Research UK statistics http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutus/imagesanddocuments/pdfdocs/ara_2007_
I have recently been in the Burnley Express. If you would like to see the article click on the link below: www.burnleyexpress.net/burnleynews/Natalie-403041-to-run-London.6205716.jp
