CURRENT PROGRESS UPDATE:
Starting in June 2011 Laura received 6 weeks of Radiotherapy and some Chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital aimed to slow down the cancer growth. Laura only had 10 out of 33 days of her Chemo course because she had an allergic reaction (followed by advice from her doctor to stop because the pathology results of her tumour biopsy revealed that chemotherapy would not be effective).
Laura completed this treatment course but unfortunately the cancer continued to grow, therefore we were told these therapies had failed and there were no other treatment options.
We then travelled to Houston, Texas at the end of July 2011 for her to start Antineoplaston treatment and Ben to be trained on administering the medicine by the doctors at the Burzynski Clinic. We then came home at the end of August 2011 and have been continuing treatment (administered by Ben with direction from the clinic).
Laura has been on antineoplaston therapy since the 8th August and has six doses daily, the most recent MRI scan on the 21st February 2012 showed some very amazing results - 77% tumour reduction! See the Blog for more details!
Our Original Appeal - 8th May 2011
Welcome to the Hope for Laura Fund
My name is Ben, I am 32 and live in Kent with my fiancee Laura, 25 and our young son Jacob, who is 2 years old. I have started this appeal to give Laura the option of what we believe is potential life saving treatment in America, which financially is way out of our reach.
When I first met Laura three years ago I knew instantly that this beautiful, bright and energetic girl was the one I wanted to spend my life with. She is loyal, kind hearted and has a smile so infectious that it can light up any room. In September 2009 she gave me our precious son Jacob. I felt like the luckiest man on earth, we started planning to marry and grow our family.
However...
Laura's health slowly declined over the past year, she never fully recovered after having Jacob and was mis-diagnosed with a range of things including exhaustion. Then in later November 2010 she started to lose the feeling and co-ordination in her right arm which prompted an MRI scan at the hospital...
The results arrived on Christmas Eve 2010 and shattered our family. Laura was been diagnosed with a rare Brain Cancer and unfortunately a biopsy revealed that it is the most agressive type of brain cancer, not only is it inoperable because of its size and location but it is also deemed incurable using available cancer therapies in the UK, which can only at best slow down growth.
The average life expectancy is poor, fewer than 1 in 100 people diagnosed live for 5 years, this cancer is common in people over 50 (approx 5,000 diagnosed annualy in the UK) but very rare in Laura's age group, there are less than 50 cases reported every year in the UK and there is no known cause.
However a clinic in America has a pioneering treatment has been proven to very effective against this type of cancer without harming the body. The clinic has been running for over 30 years and has been able to not only stabilise, but potentially cure this awful disease in some cases.
Unfortunately this treatment is not available via the NHS so we have to pay for this ourselves, the cost is approximately £90,000 per year and most patients will require anything from 2 to 4 years treatment. Although this is a large amount of money, i believe you cannot put a price on saving a life, especially that of a young mum.
I hope and pray that through fundraising and generosity we will be able to acheive our dream to raise enough money to give Laura this potentially life saving treatment and beat this awful condition, giving her the chance to see our son Jacob grow up.
100% of donations will go towards Laura's treatment fund and when we reach our target anything over and above what we need for Laura will be used to help other patients with the same condition.
Thank you for taking the time to listen,
Ben
