On the 16th of July 2021 my beautiful mum Louvain passed away from her one year fight with mesothelioma. 

My mum was the loveliest woman you would ever meet, she would always be there if you needed her and always went above and beyond for everyone.

When my mum got diagnosed with mesothelioma as a family we were devastated, we were confused and we had so many questions.We had never heard of this kind of cancer nor most people around us. A cancer caused by asbestos exposure which causes a type of cancer to grow in the lining of certain organs (for my mum it grew in the lining of the lungs the pleura).

My mum always had a cough, for me I almost stopped hearing it, she had it for as long as I can remember but at the start of 2020 she started to complain about a pain near her chest. Off course we said to go straight to the doctors so they could see what was causing the pain and after the first trip getting told to just take some paracetamol eventually they found out she had stage 4 mesothelioma which was why she always had a cough.

After doing some research and getting advice from the oncologist my mum started chemotherapy which almost took her immune system to the lowest it could be. When the chemotherapy failed to work she was offered to start a trail called MIST 2 which also did not help but just weak-end her immune system more.

After seeing my mum deteriorate almost from the minute she was diagnosed and after more research us as a family did we realised that the cancer mesothelioma is a fatal disease and is incurable.

My mum was such a fighter and her last option was to try radiotherapy to see if it would give her a little more time on this earth with us. She had always wanted a tattoo so they tattooed her where the lasers would go to start the radiotherapy but unfortunately her time with us was coming to a end and it was time for us to treasure our last moments together. 

I am running the great north run in memory of my mum she always loved when I was active and working out so I know she’ll be there giving me strength.

I am also running the great north run to raise awareness for mesothelioma. I want to spread knowledge on this fatal disease, I wonder if we knew more about mesothelioma at the time and if we had more advice if we would have took different routes for treatment. 

I think if there was more research for mesothelioma it could help family’s have guidance through such a traumatising time. 

Any donation is highly appreciated by me and my family and will all go to the British Lung Foundation who have mesothelioma patrons and have a team doing research on the fatal disease. 

If you want more information on mesothelioma:

https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-you/mesothelioma