Hello everyone. My name is Alison and I am a mum to three wonderful boys.

I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in July 2016. We knew it was aggressive from day one as it was already in my lymph nodes. It has been a struggle both physically and emotionally to go through my mastectomy surgery and lymph node removal (twelve lymph nodes were found to be affected), and the treatment that followed. In July I was told it had spread into my bones and liver. I knew something was very wrong as I was having great difficulty walking and doing anything really. There are several small tumours in my liver and multiple tumours in my pelvis, ribs, sacrum, iliac blade with partial collapse of L1, L3 and T4 in the spine. I also have seven tumours under my arm in my lymph nodes. Despite surgery, targeted chemotherapy and bisphosphonates to help strengthen the bones, my treatment options are now becoming slim as the cancer is becoming more aggressive and unresponsive to conventional treatment. This is Stage 4 cancer – there is no stage 5.

Time is running out but I am not prepared to give up.

My life has completely changed since my initial diagnosis. I have spent every moment of my life trying to keep my body as healthy as I can to be able to manage the cancer. This has meant a radical change to my lifestyle and diet, (no sugar, dairy or wheat) and only eating fresh, organic produce with absolutely no processed food. I have also been having Mistletoe Therapy since September 2016. Mistletoe has a positive effect on the immune system and can improve tolerance of standard therapies such as chemotherapy. It uses pharmaceutically prepared extracts from the mistletoe plant and I have an infusion every month in Aberdeen. I originally spent two weeks having high-dose fever-inducing Mistletoe extract to give my immune system a massive boost and have since been self injecting it into my abdomen three times a week. I truly believe that this is what has enabled me to be as ‘well’ as I am considering my diagnosis. However this is not available on the NHS and has to be self-funded at quite a cost. I also self-fund Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy which I have two or three times a week. It is also really important with a stage 4 diagnosis to be able to get your head around it and try not to live in fear. This is why I also pay for various alternative treatments such as reiki, reflexology, counselling and meditation classes. All these come at a cost, along with the food and all the supplements that are required to keep my body strong.

I have an amazing oncologist who does everything he can to make things comfortable for me and not to force me to take anything he knows I wouldn’t be happy about. But there is only surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy available in the UK and when they fail, there is nothing else. There are alternative treatments available in Europe, however, there is only so little oncologists can do in the UK as they are bound by the 1939 Cancer Act Law which can prevent medical staff from even discussing alternative treatments.

Some of the treatments which show very good success are in Germany and they are specifically targeted treatments which are far less aggressive than chemotherapy and have fewer side effects. The clinic I am hoping to be able to go to is the Hallwang Clinic, www.hallwang-clinic.com. This clinic offers immunotherapy which is a breakthrough treatment but can cost up to 10,000euros with individual testing and then repeat visits for further treatment. There are many other treatments that run alongside this as you are treated very much holistically and given immune boosting therapies and other crucial treatments. For example the cost of three doses of Vitamin C infusions, liver detox therapies and accommodation can cost over £5000. I have been advised that an initial treatment plan could cost up to £50,000 and along with the flights, accommodation and follow up treatments it is an enormous amount of money. However at this stage I feel there are no further options for me.

In the hope of securing the treatment plan that the Hallwang Clinic offer I am going to need a huge amount of funding. I do not know at this stage how much money will be needed but I will know more once treatment is underway.

This has not been an easy decision for me, as anyone who knows me would say, and by nature I am not someone who would ever ask for help, let alone money. But I want to be here for my beautiful boys with my youngest being only 14. I’d like to see them grow up and have children of their own, and I need to spend some quality time with my autistic son who has been in and out of hospital for the past 9 years. We are very hopeful that he will be discharged in the new year into his own place and I will at last be able to see him after a year and a half. I dream of a holiday with my amazing, supportive husband and three boys – something we’ve never been able to do.

If there is anything you can do to help I would be so incredibly grateful – that is not enough I know but I’m not sure what I can say. If you could donate anything at all it would be so much appreciated, however small. Or if anyone would like to do fundraising activities that would be wonderful as well.

Cancer has changed my life and the one thing it has taught me is that there is nothing more important than our health and the love of family and friends. I need to give this my best shot for everyone.

Please can I ask everyone to like and share on social media to spread the word so I can manage to get this life saving treatment.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you

Alison xxx