I've reached my original target of £4000 thanks to some amazing generosity!!

I have now increased my target to £6000 because it is all going to a very worthy cause... so please keep on giving!

Thanks for visiting my JustGiving page, please take some time to read about my amazing Mum...

My Mum was 1st diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 40 when I was just 10 years old. I can remember being picked up from school one day, my 2 older sisters were already in the back of the car and I knew straight away that something serious was about to happen. We drove to the hospital as a family and my Dad explained to us that my Mum needed to have an operation to make her head feel better. I don’t remember realising the seriousness of the brain surgery until Dad broke down in the fish and chip shop where he had taken the 3 of us for dinner while mum was in surgery. Seeing Dad cry that night is a memory I will never forget.

The surgery to fit a tube to drain the fluid building up around the tumour causing Mum severe headaches was a success and Mum made a full recovery. The tumour itself could not be removed due to its position, composition and size so this was the next best solution. Mum, true to form, never once complained during her recovery and was more concerned about 'her girls' as always. She was back to her smiley, happy self within days!

Life was back to normal for us all, and Mum's headaches were a thing of the past for a good many years.

Unfortunately 10 years on almost to the day Mum was readmitted for another operation on her brain. It turned out that a new tumour had formed on top of the original one causing huge pressure on her brain giving her more severe headaches, walking problems and disorientation. This tumour was different to the 1st and the surgeons were confident they could safely remove it, although they expressed a concern that this one might be malignant. Another anxious night of waiting followed her 6 hour operation. But the news was good, the surgery had been a success and they had been able to remove about 97% of the tumour and the rest was taken care of through radiotherapy. Yet again, not a word of complaint from Mum throughout this ordeal, always remaining positive and making sure we were all ok!

For a few years life went back to normal, Mum was in good health, running around after us all as usual insisting on doing our washing, making us cakes and generally doing what she loves best…being the perfect Mum!

As time went on Mum became less mobile. She was eventually unable to use her left arm at all and often needed a wheelchair to travel any distance. The experts told us that the tumour, having been present for so many years, had taken its toll on the underlying tissues and was impairing the mobility of Mums left side. It had also lead to a slowing down of Mum’s cognitive functions and she was often lost in conversations, struggling to keep up.

The possible solution presented by Mum’s surgeon was not an appealing one. He proposed an operation to remove the original tumour using new tools and technology, quoting a 50/50 chance of survival. The outcome of the operation was relatively unknown but there was a good chance that Mum’s mobility and cognition would either improve or at least cease from deteriorating any further. The only certainty was that if nothing was done her quality of life would continue to decline until she had little or none at all.

So, on 12^th October 2008 (on her 58^th birthday) we once again took Mum to hospital for elective brain surgery. The procedure lasted for 10 long hours and we waited anxiously for news of Mum’s condition. The surgeons were pleased with how the operation had gone but still unsure of how full her recovery would be. She was wheeled past us in a flash into intensive care where she remained for the next 4 months, half of which she spent in a coma. Throughout this time there were many ups and downs including 8 further operations to her brain to fit and remove various tubes which repeatedly became infected. She also contracted hospital acquired pneumonia which slowed her recovery immensely.

Seeing Mum in intensive care was extremely painful for us as a family and we subconsciously took turns to be the strong one at times when the others were struggling to deal with the situation. Watching Mum during her ‘pain tests’, as we began to call them, filled us with a mixture of hope and horror as we willed her to fight back and stop the nurses from inflicting the pain they were told to impose to rouse her.

Mum eventually began to respond and pull away from the source of the pain, proving that her reflex responses were returning. She also began to make eye contact and smile when we walked in the room. She started to hold out her hand to be held and mouth words we at first could not make out. With a tracheotomy in place for months on end Mum was unable to speak but was definitely starting to try to communicate.

After 4 months she was weaned off the breathing apparatus and had her tracheotomy removed. I can remember the first thing she said to me, in a very weak voice, “my baby”, her affectionate name for me as her youngest daughter. This was a real turning point for me in believing that she was finally on the road to recovery and I could allow myself to think of her eventually coming home.

Mum was moved to a hospital closer to home having spent 5 months in , making it much easier for my Dad to visit. There were plenty more ups and downs on her new ward, but a steady if not painfully slow improvement in general, eventually leading to a move onto a neurological rehab ward at the same hospital. Her treatment here involved a lot more physiotherapy and it was here that she took her first few steps since the operation using a harness and walking frame.

In July 2009 Mum became a resident at the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home in to undergo specialist rehabilitation. It is here that she has made more great strides in her recovery. Thanks to her physiotherapy she is now able to walk small distances with a stick and climb 2 flights of stairs. With speech and language therapy and her general determination, she can understand and respond to questions and often initiates conversation herself. She could rival Jackanory with her story telling and poem recitals, a firm favourite being The Walrus and the Carpenter. She beats me at dominoes every time and regularly completes complex jigsaw puzzles (with the odd hint!).

Since Mum has been at the QAHH she is always smiling and constantly has the other residents in fits of giggles with her cheeky grin and rather loud and often unintentional jokes! The staff care for her as if she were part of their family and their faces light up when she enters the room. She has even joined the resident band, playing the tambourine and enthusiastically singing along with the others. Being here has meant a lot more peace of mind for our family, as we know she is in truly capable and caring hands. It is here that we are finally seeing our mum come back to us as her strength is growing and her personality shines through. For this we are extremely grateful.

Those of you who know my Mum will know her as a very special and incredibly strong woman who never complains about her situation. She is the sort of person who is happiest, only when others around her are happy. She is a fantastic Mum and loving wife who still blows kisses to my Dad from across the room… He has certainly earned them!

I want to complete the challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in honour of my wonderful Mum to raise money for this very special hospital who have taken (and are still taking) such good care of her. Of course there are many other incredible stories of the amazing care provided by this hospital and how many lives they have changed.

I also want to do this as a thank you and acknowledgement to my Dad, who has been the most caring and attentive husband to my Mum that a woman could ever wish for. She could not ask for more.

Every year QAHH must raise more than £1 million in voluntary income to meet the additional costs of providing the level of care that their residents need and deserve. Please give generously so that others can recieve their remarkable care. To put your donation into perspective, please bare in mind that it costs them £30 to provide just 1 physiotherapy or occupational therapy session.

Thank you for reading Mum’s story and for your donations to a very worthy cause.

Laura xxx