How do you solve a problem like Maria & Climb Every Mountain.......The song’s we sing from The Sound of Music to our sister Maria!

Maria has certainly had her fair share of problems and Mountains to overcome over the years, she was scalded as a child with boiling water, burst her appendix whilst on holiday in France, overcome the sad loss of two baby boys, fought Breast Cancer in 2015 and now she’s facing the biggest Mountain of all! 

This is her journey........

In 2015 Maria found a lump the size of a petit pois in her breast. Her first fight, yep it was Breast Cancer and aggressive. Who would have thought that something the size of a small pea could cause so much pain, heartache and fear!

The fight began but she wasn’t alone as ‘My Sisters Battle is My Battle’. I promised then that I would look after her and she would be ok - we’d fight it as one and I’d be with her every step of the way - I never break a promise! 

As a family we pulled together,  we each played our part, we were all there for her no matter what.......I even ran my first 10k!

Maria endured rounds of Chemotherapy, Hair Loss, Radiotherapy, Full Lymph Node Clearance, Injections, Cramps, Scans, took loads of different medication and dealt with all of the accompanying side effects & emotions that came with it and to top it all off, the Brucie Bonus, she was given a Mastectomy and started early Menopause at just 35 years old!

It was a long road but by the end of 2016 Maria was told she was cancer free! After months of treatment and never ending appointments, anxiety and learning to live with being a cancer survivor became a challenge in itself........would it return, has it gone??

As time went on she finally started to believe that she was actually cancer free and it was time to put it all behind her, pull her socks up and move on with her life, not just for her sake, but for her husband and even more-so, her children. They’d seen enough sadness already and needed their Mum back, just a bit of normality. 

All was going really well until one Sunday afternoon Maria randomly decided to get her eyes tested after repeated headaches........then the nightmare really began, they found swelling behind her eye! 

Once again more MRI/CT scans, numerous tests etc but the results didn’t reveal anything so the Doctors put it all down to Anxiety and Stress but Maria knew, she knew all along. 

It eventually took just one Doctor, staying beyond his working hours, to trust his instincts and order a Lumbar Puncture - to him I will remain forever grateful, he bought us invaluable time. 

After several Neurologists reviewed Maria’s MRI scans and the Lumbar Puncture results came back, we were hit with a gigantic wrecking ball, the most gut wrenching pain I have ever felt in my life. Now I truly understand the feeling and meaning of.... ‘You feel like your guts have been ripped out’. 

Our whole world had been turned upside down, the cancer was back but this time it was in her Cerebral Spinal Fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord - Technical name - Leptomeningeal Metastases (LM). An extremely rare form of cancer and affects less than 5% of caner patients. 

LM is a Secondary Cancer which had spread from Breast Cancer cells. Somehow managing to cross nature’s Blood/Brain barrier, which is supposedly there to protect your Brain and central nervous system from any toxicity or infections in the body........anything of course, except cancer cells.

Everything then became a blur, but you hear those words ringing continuously in your ears and going over and over in your head......’Incurable’ ‘Inoperable’ ‘Poor life expectancy, 6-8 weeks’ ‘I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do’ ............

Anger takes over & you question in sheer disbelief, What do mean there’s nothing you can do, of course you can, surely in this day and age there must be something you can can do? What about all the millions of pounds raised for Cancer Research, there must be a cure???? 

But sadly No, there is no tumor to remove, no growth to shrink, the cells basically float in the spinal fluid, mutating and eventually settling around the brain until there are too many to control. 

Then there’s that burning question of ‘How long does she have?’ Something we all wanted to know but too afraid to ask, but the truth is, no one really knows, based on previous cases of the same cancer, the average life expectancy is 6-8 weeks without treatment and 3-6 months with treatment - no time at all for someone in their 30's!! 

Anger remains, you try to blame someone/something, you feel utter sadness and complete helplessness but as much as we all pray that this isn’t really happening, we have to face the reality and fight, fight as hard as we can. Maria’s mole hill just became the biggest Mountain ever!  

There are only three charities in the UK who focus purely on research into Secondary Breast Cancer - One being Second Hope. 

So, with Maria’s blessing, I am hoping to raise as much money as I possibly can for Second Hope who are a non-profit charity with ALL donations paid directly into Secondary Breast Cancer Research -www.secondhope.co.uk

So what’s my challenge.............You’ve probably seen me climbing a few peaks lately, well I’m in training for The National Three Peaks Challenge! 

If Maria has a Mountain to climb then so do I.......three of them! 

On July 6th 2019 my brother-in-law (Ieuan Pearce) and I will endeavour to climb the three highest peaks in the UK, Ben Nevis, Scafel Pike and Snowdon, all within 24 hours! 

By doing so, we hope to raise as much money as we can and help find a cure for Secondary Breast Cancer. Maybe there’s something already out there that can help Maria but it’s not quite ready just yet.

So please, please, help me, help the researchers find a cure to STOP this horrific disease killing people and destroying their families, it’s just not fair.

Maria’s too young to leave us and should have her whole life to look forward too. Her children are far too young to lose their Mum and I don’t want to lose my little sister. So please, please support me and donate whatever you can, every penny really does help.

In the words of Winston Churchill - "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Thank you for reading and supporting Maria’s Mountains and for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page

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