Iain Ramage
Iain's Fundraising Waxathon
Fundraising for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity
Story
I am running a fundraising waxathon to support the above charity, my cousin is currently receiving treatment and is a Stage 4 Melanoma patient, her story is below, she is 48 and the condition is not currently curable and she has set up a fundraising page that she is constantly updating and adding events, she has already raised over £30,000 for research and we feel the need to assist in her fight against this terrible disease, site below showing all events if you wish to review.
Following Shiona's stage 4 diagnosis, she undertook 3 rounds of combined immunotherapy treatment (ipilimumab and nivolumab) before being hospitalised for over 3 weeks with a serious, adverse liver effect (auto-immune hepatitis). Fortunately, the scans showed that the treatment had worked and the tumour in her brain had shown a positive response, significantly shrinking. As we approached Xmas and having finally achieved her objective of being ‘drug free’, Shiona found out that a new tumour had developed in a different part of her brain. She has been undertaking daily medication (dabrafenib and trametinib) in oral form ever since, which targets the genetic make-up of her melanoma tumour to switch off its ability to multiply and spread. To date, scans have revealed that the medication is having a positive response with the tumour shrinking and no further evidence of the disease. Whilst Shiona gets on with every day life, planning is now dictated by the cycle of regular scans & trying to keep on top of this dangerous & unpredictable disease.
Thank you in advance
