My name is Michelle, back in 2009 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, after surgery, and 6 months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy they were sure they had got it all. I continued with 5 years of hormone treatment and at the end of that was given the all clear. Unfortunately, cancer came back into our lives, this time I lost my soulmate Andy, of 33 years to stage 4 colon cancer. In 2020 at the very start of the Covid lockdown my beloved mum died, a day later I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer in my Liver and bones. Not the best time (if there ever is one), to be diagnosed with a death sentence. At this time, I was still grieving the loss of my soulmate and now also my mother. I needed her so much at that point, but I was also thankful she didn't know, as her heart would’ve been breaking, like any mothers would. I’ve tried a number of treatments. My first treatment was very successful and kept me stable for 3.5 years. Now, however, due to failed treatments, I’m running out of options. To stay alive, the interventions I need are not available to me on the NHS. But I dearly want to live. The costs I face for the private treatments are huge, but when the only other option is giving up and dying, I’m determined to find a way to keep myself alive. If you’d like to help, you can donate below and I’m so grateful for anything you can give. You can also help make a difference by reading and sharing my story and helping to raise awareness about the difficulties I’m facing. Women and men shouldn’t be dying so soon from this terrible disease, I personally know women that are well over 10 years living with it and I want that to be me too. I strongly feel that my life is as valuable as anyone else’s, and I need a chance to continue loving my family and friends and creating awesome memories. Thank you so much for your time.

My story

So, back in late 2018 I kept getting a severe pain in my neck which would stop me in my tracks. At the time I was caring for my Andy, and I put it down to the grief of the realisation that I was losing him, and our life together. I was busy with my job as a Customer Services Manager, the most brilliant job I've ever had, and they showed great compassion, giving me months off to look after Andy.

A week before I lost my mum the pain travelled to my left bicep, and when I say it was a screaming pain I'm not exaggerating. My GP organised an MRI suggesting it was a trapped nerve. The results came through a week later, I was out walking my dog when they called me….

Mum had died the day before that awful phone call. We shared the same GP, so I asked if she was calling about mum, but no, it was to deliver the life shattering news that I had stage 4 cancer, which is incurable - there is no stage 5. The cancer, which had returned as secondary breast cancer, was in my spine and my liver. My life had already been turned upside down and this news was as much as I could take, collapsing to the ground.

Work was very supportive and shocked that I could be going through this, but I'm a natural optimist and a fighter, and this soon came to the top of my emotions again.

Knowing that your liver grows back, I sought a second opinion to that of my local hospital, who had told me it wasn't worth any surgery as the cancer would just spread elsewhere, despite me saying ‘But it might not!’ I was lucky enough to be offered a liver resection by the NHS Royal Free Hospital in London, and I will be eternally grateful to them, as they gave me a further 2.5 years of living with no cancer in my liver.

In November 2023 my medication stopped working and I had rapid progression in my liver. The new medication they gave me unfortunately didn't work and also made me very ill with Pneumonia and Sepsis. It became obvious that I could no longer work at the job I loved so much and was retired on medical grounds at the beginning of May this year. This was very emotional and seemed so final. I am, however, determined to be optimistic and be one of the lucky ones, so I’ve travelled and enjoyed my life despite of this disease.

But, here comes the catch - Unfortunately, our beloved NHS does not offer patients with more than one metastases, any of the interventional palliative radiotherapy treatments known to destroy tumours and prolong life. At the moment I am suffering with high toxicity in my liver which is making me very ill. Also, I cannot take my anti-cancer medication as this may be the cause of it, so currently, my cancer is able to spread freely in my liver and anywhere else it fancies going. Chemo probably won’t help either as one of the treatments I tried and failed with was a chemo tablet.

The only hope I have left at this point to stop cancer in its tracks is to fly to Frankfurt University Hospital for treatment – a treatment that has seen miraculous results for stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Laura, a woman, I know through a support group, was given up to 6 weeks to live, with disease in her liver, bones and lungs. She was already in a wheelchair and could barely speak because of the disease in her liver, but after 10 sessions of TACE and (Transarterial regional chemoperfusion and embolisation) she has achieved ‘no evidence of disease’ anywhere! So, I'm thinking where do I sign up? I want some of that please!

This treatment will cost in excess of £50,000 for 10 treatments, which excludes any time I might need to go and have consultations and MRI’s outside of treatment, and of course, the cost of complications and longer stays in hospital are not included. If it wasn’t that this treatment is the only thing that might help me, there’s no way I’d ever have considered it.

I do have rainy day savings, but no one saves for a storm like this. Because of these savings I am able to start myself off on this treatment straightaway, however, it’s incredibly stressful knowing how much money I might need in order to continue this treatment which could be many years ‘God willing’.

So, this is where I am appealing for your help. If I can find enough people who are willing to donate the cost of what they’d spend on a beer or a coffee, I’d have enough to pay for a full course of treatment – the only hope I have of staying alive.

Any and every donation here can make a real difference, helping me get the treatment I need so I can kick this deadly cancer into touch. Even if you can’t afford to spare anything, you can make a big difference just by sharing this page – if enough people read my story perhaps the NHS will consider making these treatments available for every stage 4 patient who’s cancer has spread to their liver as well as other places, and change the way they currently classify cancers.

With your help to raise awareness, I’d like to think that when people in the future are diagnosed with this cancer, they can be given much hope that they can live with this cancer for many years, because of changes in classifications, and it becomes, no longer, a death sentence.

Kindest wishes, Michelle and my family and friends who I love very much, and they love me, and really want me with them.

If i were to die and there were funds left from this appeal my wish is that its shared equally between the Royal Free Hepatology Department and Secondary Breast Cancer Charities.