This page was set up to honour the memory of Teresa Reynolds (formerly Naden) – a superstar mother, sister, friend and daughter. We hope that her story will be useful to anyone with a cancer diagnosis.

Teresa’s mother, Sheila, shared the struggle with her daughter.  Sheila’s help made all the difference to Teresa’s ability to keep going.  She looked after her granddaughter, had housework under control, kept spirits up and was at Teresa’s side to the end.  

Teresa was an inspiration: clever and hardworking she never gave up trying to build a better life for her and her child. Beautiful inside and out, Teresa was always smiling and laughing. Tragically, she passed away very suddenly aged 47 in  August 2019.  

We hope to raise money in memory of our wonderful friend. She wanted to raise funds for Colchester General Hospital, where she was last treated. (The Cancer Centre Campaign)

Breast cancer is a complex disease which should not be underestimated.  It is possible to be given the all clear, when in fact cancer may still be present.  What we have also learnt is that the secondary form of the illness can be a different form to that found in the primary site.  It also appears that the type of primary cancer can be ambiguous when first diagnosed. Teresa was diagnosed with ER positive (oestrogen receptive) breast cancer in 2015.

However, she died from the complications of Triple Negative breast cancer in 2019. 

Teresa’s first consultant was optimistic: this illness could be cured and Teresa should not be unduly concerned. 

After radiotherapy, surgery and chemo she was given the all clear.  She
responded extremely well to chemo and took Letrozole for 3 years (for oestrogen receptive cancer). 

In May 2018, Teresa felt pain in her ribs and around her body.  She was told by doctors that she had ‘chemo pain’ and inflammation.   The pains continued.  In October, a new consultant at Colchester General did tests which showed that Teresa now had Triple Negative metastatic breast cancer and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. 

She understood that the cancer was in her bones, namely her femur, ribs and neck. 

The medicine she had taken for the last 3 years would have had no effect on a Triple Negative cancer.

Teresa was given chemo to hold further spread incheck.   However, she began to have headaches in July 2019 and severe vertigo.   Initial scans showed nothing amiss.  There was no brain tumour.

The pain grew intolerable and she was admitted to hospital in mid August.  A lumbar puncture revealed that the cancer was in her spinal and brain fluid.  She began suffering seizures.  Within a week, she was moved to a hospice.  She lost her sight.  She passed away within a few days of arriving, leaving everyone devastated.

We had all been living with false hope and an unrealistic idea of how seriously ill Teresa was.  She had until recently looked and felt good.  She thought she had plenty of time.

Teresa had a plan to try experimental treatments offered by places such as Care Oncology Clinic Ltd in London – once the recommended treatment was no longer working.   Had she known how ill she really was, and how little time she had she would not have hesitated to take the medications that are being re-purposed in the alternative cancer clinics.   These include mebendazole (an over the counter anti-worming medication) and metformin (a diabetic drug).   To quote from the US National Cancer Institute website: “Mebendazole is used to treat parasitic infections and may slow the growth of tumour cells by interfering with cell structure and preventing new tumour blood vessels from forming". We cannot say if these ‘new’ drugs would have worked, but we are sad that our friend never had a chance to find out. 

We have no medical knowledge so cannot say if these 'new' drugs would have worked, but we are sad that our friend never had a chance to find out. 

All we can do is share this story in the hope that it may be helpful to someone.  

We hope that one day regular pre-emptive testing and monitoring will be the norm and effective treatments will put a stop to this illness.

Thank you for reading this page.  It would be lovely if everyone who read it could make a donation – however small – towards our memorial fund to benefit Cancer Centre Campaign, Colchester Hospital, Essex, England.