Please support me to carry on living. I am 45 with a 12 year old daughter & husband who love me & need me. Besides that I love life! I have breast cancer which has spread to my liver. That has a very poor prognosis but I am doing better than originally expected. Unfortunately, the situation remains as urgent as the first day I found out. So please help in any way you can.

I find Mistletoe Therapy so beneficial in coping with the heavy treatment side effects which come with my ongoing cancer treatment. Not only that, now lockdown is over, I have a chance to resume the IV mistletoe infusions. These will get enough mistletoe into my system to have some anti-cancer effects too. During lockdown I have been injecting Mistletoe 3x times weekly. This will continue. I had a very strong immune response to the COVID vaccinations which my prescribing doctor for Mistletoe saw as a very positive sign. Every effort counts. I do many other positive things to support my health & will carry on doing so. I am very committed to making any resources which I get matter.

The target I have set is for the basic costs of treatment for one year:

Fraxini 20mg ampoules injected 3x weekly, plus 8 x 20mg ampoules via IV infusion monthly = £2,360. IV infusion costs = £1,380 TOTAL: £3,740

This target does not cover private prescription & review costs, rail fare or accommodation. That is another £2,099.40. So please be aware that any additional funds will still go directly towards funding my treatment.

Your help is so very vital & my gratitude is boundless. If you would like to know more about my particular cancer story please read on. Please also, share this post as many times as you can. Lots of small donations can change the future. With love to you all, Fran x

My Cancer Story:

In November 2018, I was taken into a room with my Oncologist & two nurses to be told that I had cancer in several lobes of my liver & that all that would be offered to me was from now on was palliative treatment. The mood was sombre but well rehearsed. I felt that I had been ushered onto a well worn path that ended with my grave.

I had already completed extensive treatment for my original breast cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy, mastectomy, more chemotherapy, radiotherapy & hormone therapy, beginning back in June 2015. After a series of meetings & a 9 month wait list, I was about to get reconstructive surgery at last. It was then that the cancer in my liver was picked up on a pre-op CT scan. Needless to say, surgery was cancelled. Today, I still walk around with only one breast & I do mind that very much. But it is one thing, on a long list of losses that I do not have the time or space to describe here.

Only know this: I still want to live.

I don't think the Oncologist held out much hope for me back in late 2018. He thought that the cancer had mutated to a more aggressive type & he wasn't sure he could make it stop. It could happen very fast. I was put onto a clinical trial where I had 6 rounds of a rough going taxane-based drug that they usually give to prostate patients who are running out of options. I was the only patient on the trial at my local hospital who did not progress.

By now the trial was over, it was the summer of 2019 & I got married. Walking down the aisle with barely any hair & no reconstruction. I had leave to delay starting my new treatment until home from honeymoon. Not the average brides dream. I didn't know if I would live to see our first anniversary. Yet it was a joyful day. Several treatments have followed since then. Each time a treatment fails, there is the potential for the cancer to rapidly get worse & for the available treatments to get closer to running out.

For the first year of my terminal diagnosis, the cancer stayed only in my liver, where it did not grow in either size or number of mets (small areas of cancer cells). Yet, the team treating me did not support second opinions, or enquiries about radiotherapy or surgery. I sought several further medical opinions anyway, all were useful in their way. It turned out the team treating me were wrong.

In August of 2019 I emailed a leading liver surgeon. I had not spoken to a surgeon to date. What did I have to lose? He responded within 20 minutes of getting my unsolicited out of hours email. Then discussed my case within days at his team meeting. His hospital came back to me: Could my hospital do an MRI? This would give them more detail than a CT scan. They were trying to create me a plan.

Whilst I waited for an MRI scan date to arrive I set up a trip to Camphill Wellbeing Trust in November for an Intensive Mistletoe Therapy induction. The CT in December that year showed a partial remission. It was completed only a couple of weeks after my return. I believed that the process of fevering whilst at Camphill had helped & the mistletoe was helping a lot too with all my treatment side effects. I was very glad that I had gone.

Meanwhile, my local hospital had dragged their heels into December before I got my urgent MRI. They took an inexplicably long amount of time before passing my medical information across to the other hospital afterwards. Despite this, I got an offer of a liver re-section from the liver surgeon at the other hospital & a liver nurse to co-ordinate the surgery with. I just needed one email of support from my Oncologist & the surgery would go ahead within days. Unfortunately, my local hospital did not cooperate despite my telephone calls explaining it all clearly. In the end, I needed another scan before surgery could go ahead, as my hospital taken so long the validity of the other scan had expired. I had a feeling of dread. The results came in: there was slight progression on the new scan. The cancer had now spread to the lymph nodes under my right arm. No surgery could be done. I felt crushed.

It was Spring 2020 & many cancer patients were beginning to get routine scans delayed. Some patients were advised to stop their treatment altogether for a time as NHS resources were re-directed towards COVID 19. I was back on an old tablet chemo I had done before & needed a scan to see if it was working. I was still deeply wounded by the lack of support from my local hospital. It was untenable to stay. I did some digging around & then went through my GP to change my hospital & Oncologist just as lockdown began.

My new Oncologist & I had only ever spoken by phone when in late December 2020 the CT scan picked up the first signs of drug resistance. Two areas of cancer in my liver were trying to grow. Although my scans had been stable all year, the medication would need to change again. At the start of 2021, I was faced with two chemotherapy options, neither of which I much liked the look of. Regardless, there was the unavoidable need to start one soon. I had spent my Christmas scouring databases for clinical trials & looking at research. I had found a trial. I wasn't sure if it would be a good fit but I had no chance of discussing it before the New Year. Christmas holidays. My new Oncologist was receptive & positive about the suggestion when I ran it past him. He got in touch with the Oncologist at a hospital in Cornwall who ran the nearest trial site.

One afternoon about a week later the phone rang unexpectedly. It was the Oncologist based in Cornwall. He was warm & friendly & spoke to me in detail about the trial. Whilst suitable, he felt that he had a drug combination which might work better for me. I readily accepted his advice. If the drug combination he suggested worked then I would be on the current gold standard treatment for secondary breast cancer patients with ER positive breast cancer. However, like my original Oncologist, he wasn't sure if my cancer was now triple negative in nature (a different biological subtype). Cancer mutates over time & in response to treatment.

If that were the case then the medication wouldn't work. By the time the first results were in, the cancer would have grown & no effective treatment would have been identified. It was a frightening prospect. It would be several treatment cycles & some close monitoring before it would be worth scanning me to find out.

Thankfully, to date I am still on that treatment combination. I have just had my first stable result with these drugs & will be on them for as long as they work for me. This could be a short while or a slightly longer stretch. We don't know. I will have a scan every 3 months to check.

Continuous treatment is hard on body, mind & spirit. I know from experience that Mistletoe can support me well holistically. I hope to carry on living a while yet & I hope that your support will help me to do so. I will continue to reach towards whatever might help in my quest for health. Its a complex & integrated process. I can only cover a small part of it here. Please support me however you can. Sharing this post helps. Talking about it helps. Donating helps. Lastly, thank you, thank you, thank you for engaging with me here. I will update all supporters throughout the year.

With love & gratitude

Fran x