After the incredibly sad news that Andy Jones has passed away, LUDSS will continue to raise money in his memory. Andy expressed that he would like any donations to be passed onto Clatterbridge Cancer Charity in these circumstances, LUDSS plan to do so in memory of Andy.

For any of you who don't know Andy, this was his story...

Andy is a recent graduate from Liverpool Dental School (2013). Unfortunately in 2015 he was diagnosed with stage 4 Malignant Melanoma. (This is a very aggressive and difficult to treat form of the disease.)

In the time since Andy has endeavoured to keep working, and many of you will have been supervised by him as an SHO in the 2015-2016 year.

During the past two and a half years, Andy has endured 4 major surgeries, multiple minor surgeries/procedures, radiotherapy, and pretty much continuous forms of chemotherapy.

Initially he had an amazing response, but from summer 2016 things have been difficult.

Since July 2017 things have taken a turn for the worse, and unfortunately Andy has had to stop working for the foreseeable future. Normal life is currently not possible due to a combination of pain, fatigue and general deconditioning due to the burden of the disease on his body.

Due to the advanced nature of his disease, options are now very limited, and the only hope may be within the private sector, either in the U.K. or abroad.

During October Andy has been undergoing a cutting edge treatment at Christie's Hospital in Manchester. Thankfully he is back home now after a very intense inpatient based treatment.

This treatment was private, costing a total of £80,000, which it was possible to do using previous fundraising efforts by friends and family (~£43,000 raised) and his own personal lifetime savings.

Time will tell whether this works, but if it does, repeating the process may give a very good chance of successfully controlling the disease even further.

New treatments in Melanoma are coming out all of the time, and it has always been Andy's attitude to try and weather every storm until the right thing comes along.

With your help, Andy will be in a better position to access the care he is likely to desperately need. We really hope we can do our best to help Andy throughout this year. Any donations no matter how big or small will be greatly appreciated.