Thank you taking the time to read my post. My name is Ben and I’m fundraising to help my sister in law, Sarah, through the fight of her life.

Sarah, has been diagnosed with Spindle Cell Metaplastic Carcinoma, an extremely aggressive and rare form of breast cancer. This type of cancer accounts for just 0.3% of breast cancers in women. Its also been confirmed as triple negative, making it even harder to treat.

Whilst undergoing treatment Sarah fell extremely ill after her first round of immunotherapy. This lead to a hospital stay for 3 weeks, with believing Sarah had some form of infection. After a PET scan it was brought to the doctors attention that it was a biochemical reaction to the immunotherapy plus the aggressive nature of her cancer. That also found that the tumour had grown significantly and the only option was immediate surgery.

Sarah underwent 11 hours of extensive surgery which resulted in 3 ribs being removed, full mastectomy and chest cavity removal, along with a few lymph nodes. Everything was looking promising until the skin flap which they had removed from her stomach, had lost a pulse. She was rushed into emergency surgery but had to leave a hole which would need a skin graft from her thigh. After the skin graft from her thigh was completed a few hours later they had lost the pulse to the skin flap again but unfortunately this time it wasn’t possible to save.

This left Sarah facing her 5th surgery in 7 days. After the 5th surgery Sarah has been left in agonising pain begging to not do anymore surgery.

We as a family pray that this won’t be the case but her cancer treatment is nowhere near finished. Her tumour in a matter of months had gone from the size of a walnut to a small football. Due to the rarity and aggressiveness of this cancer it is vital she can have a more targeted treatment in Germany as the NHS cannot offer this, which will cost in excess of £60k.

As a family we are fundraising for Sarah by doing various events.

Lyn Stafford is running the Manchester Marathon on the 27th April 2025

I will be running the Birmingham half marathon on the 4th May 2025.

Helen, Sarah’s sister is organising a Pizza and Prosecco fundraiser on the 10th June. Details can be found by visiting the Cofton on the Green instagram page.

If you can spare anything to help our Sarah and family during this challenging time it would mean a lot

Here is a message from her youngest daughter Evie

My mom is Sarah and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be one of her 3 children. She is a hardworking, fit strong lady who has always taken care of her health and wellbeing. She is the most incredible mother and most recently grandmother we could wish for. In the last few months, our happy and stable life turned upside down when Mom was diagnosed with Spindle Cell Metaplastic carcinoma, an extremely aggressive and rare form of breast cancer. This type of cancer accounts for just 0.3% of breast cancers in women. For those of you that have been impacted by cancer within your own families, you will know that this news has had a catastrophic effect on our family as well as those close to Mom in her personal and working environment.

Mom’s cancer is extremely aggressive and fast growing. It is very difficult to treat but because she is so young and strong the NHS are throwing everything they can at her treatment to give her the best chance of survival Mom has started a gruelling 18 month treatment plan which includes weekly high dose chemo for the next 8 months followed by a mastectomy and then further chemo and radiotherapy. There are a number of additional treatments Mom will require on top of this to simply maintain her strength to keep going. All of these additional treatments are private and come with a price tag. To add to our worries however, Mom has worked as a self-employed hair stylist (albeit a brilliant one) and immediately upon the start of her treatment her work and so income has ground to a halt. She has the added pressure of business and personal finance worries as well as financing the additional treatments she needs with no income source.

I am so very grateful for anything that you can do to help us. It is so true “you do not appreciate how important your mother is until you are faced with this kind of news.”

Thank you so very much

Ben and Evie