Hi, my name is Kasia, I am 31 years old, and have been living in Edinburgh for over 10 years now. 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was successfully treated. I also made the brave decision to have a double mastectomy to minimise a chance of re-occurrence given I was a high risk genetic carrier. My husband Lukasz and I then went back to a normal life, knowing that I had overcome my cancer. Following my optimistic prognosis, we then decided to start a family and in May’15 (on my 30th birthday) we gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Adam.
One year later our lives were turned upside down again when we were told that the cancer had returned. Sadly, it had spread to my multiple places in my body. We were simply in shock- the prognosis was that I had a few months to live. I started an intense programme of radiotherapy, and then chemotherapy. We were desperate to do whatever it took to prove the prognosis wrong. At this stage support of all my nearest and dearest family, friends and work colleagues was instrumental and kept us going.
Some initial positive scan results gave us hope, however, just before Christmas, we were told that the cancer has progressed. I tried to enter a trial for immunotherapy, unfortunately I did not qualify. We soon moved to another chemotherapy, which unfortunately didn’t work.
Our only hope now is to embark upon an experimental drug called Olaparib- a drug which is not yet approved in the UK for breast cancer. We found a way of accessing this treatment privately back in Poland. It is possible to start this as early as the end of this month, Feb’17. This unfortunately means it comes at a very high cost per treatment, ca. £4.5k, of which I require to receive monthly excluding additional hospital admissions and private scans.
Time is of the essence and we hope and pray that if you can spare any amount, no matter how small, it will improve my chance of extending my life to spent as much time with my family as possible.