Update 15/03/18: Hi everyone, It has been a while since we updated you on mum - sorry. The last few months have been a tough road. As you are aware mum was undergoing her second cycle of chemotherapy. Chemo is a brutal treatment as well as being one of the most successful ways to fight cancer. Not many know that it can also put your body under immense strain and as a result mum suffered some very terrifying side effects. She has been fighting infection after infection due to her immune system being wiped out by the chemo.

Mum suffered a bleed on the brain at the end of January, this was traumatic for us all and heartbreaking. Mum is an incredibly strong-willed fighter and she fought this battle with the will so many of us just do not possess. We've been by her side everyday, through tears and happiness with each small step toward recovery she has made and she is doing so well. We are not sure what the future holds in terms of her cancer treatment, but the priority is to get her home and to feeling a bit more comfortable.

Due to the bleed she lost the ability to move her left side, but that has improved since. She is going to need a lot of physio and nourishment to get back on her feet before we assess the next steps so please keep her in your prayers. If you are reading this and want to come and visit her please do contact us, she loves seeing your faces. She is also communicating so much more and everyday we are thankful for all these small steps. A bone marrow transplant is now not going to be possible, but mum is going to need so much care and equipment.

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On the 30th October 2017 our mum, Teresita or Tess/Tessie as many of you know her, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, a particularly aggressive cancer, with a particularly aggressive treatment plan to follow. Mum started a cycle of chemotherapy almost immediately and is currently fighting through her second cycle of the first phase of chemotherapy, which aims to put the cancer into remission. She's a warrior, an incredible fighter and in this short amount of time we have watched her battle through so much already. Cancer is brutal, in any form, but it also makes the love you were taught to grow into an unbreakable force you have never known. The world is not short of love and we are so grateful to be loved by so many of you.

Our mum has spent many of her years caring for the terminally ill and elderly and we hope with these funds we can take care of her. It is quite likely mum will need a bone marrow transplant at some point in the future, and the best match is usually a sibling. Mum is very blessed to have 9 wonderful siblings, 8 brothers and 1 sister (our much loved auntie and uncles). They are however, a little far away, the ones who are eligible are in the Philippines. This means we have a little journey to go in order to obtain their blood for testing and with hopefully one of them will be a match. Your help would go a long way to enabling us to first collect the blood samples from the Philippines, bring the samples back to London for testing, test them for a match and then bring 'the one' over to London when mum needs her transplant, organise visas and passport (some of them do not have one).

Whatever funds remain at the end all of this would be donated to The Blood Fund at the Haematology department of Hammersmith Hospital to help them develop further research, treatment and care for all blood diseases, a department who work tirelessly to look after so many with this terrible disease.

Thank you so much for all you help.

Laxmi, Robin, Shrirekha