Treatment for Rosie

I'd like to tell you a little bit about my Mum..

My mum was just your standard young adult. She had friends, she had a husband, she had a successful job as a computer programmer... then we were born. At 25 my mum found out she was pregnant and at 26 she gave birth to us. Me and my twin sister arrived 12 weeks early and my parents' - but most specifically my mum's - life changed forever, in more ways then she could've ever imagined. We were in hospital for 3 months in the special care unit. My mum stayed with us for several weeks but then she had to go home. Which meant after that, every day she had to make the journey to and from the hospital to spend every hour she could with us.

Eventually we were able to come home. But that wasn't the end of the heartache. People started noticing that we weren't moving about like other babies. At 6 months, after lots of appointments with doctors and hospitals, we were both diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. For us, Cerebral Palsy is a disability that affects all 4 limbs and means we have to use wheelchairs to get around and hoists for all transfers, meaning we rely heavily on others for our physical care.

My mum gave up work when her maternity leave was about to run out, to look after us full time. She gave up everything for us. She put her time into doing Physiotherapy and such like with us, to help us get the most out of the ability we did have. As well as this, there was the many hospital appointments to take us to. This went on until we started school and even then, in the evenings, all her time would be spent on us.

I was not an easy child. I didn't make things as easy as I could for her! As well as all the extra physical help I needed, I was not good at handling my emotions. I was so angry and so frustrated with life and I didn't really have anyone else to take it out on, so my mum was the one that bore the brunt of my super angry outbursts. My sister was easier - she was better behaved and slightly more physically able than me - but still needed the physical help and my parents only had 2 pairs of hands between them! My Dad was working hard to provide for us, so for the majority of the day my Mum was on her own dealing with both of us.

This is where I'm going to fast forward a bit. Because not much changed for the next 15 or so years after we started school. So fast forward to when we were 19. Imagine that - 19 years of looking after 2 disabled people, without any break to speak of. Who do you know that would willingly do that?!! Anyway, we had recently started a residential college so my mum had just started to get her life back a little bit. When BOOM! She was diagnosed with breast cancer. Let's just think about how unfair that is for a second... she had just got her life back. And now this. Our lives were turned upside down for a short while. We were all so worried about her.

They caught it early so she was able to get away without chemotherapy but she had surgery to remove the lump and then a week of intense radiotherapy. Other than regular hospital appointments for her, life pretty much returned to normal. Things were pretty good. Me and my sister finished college, went to uni, moved into our own houses (thanks to our parents for their forward planning, houses were ready for us when we were) with a team of carers to meet our care needs, my sister got a job and I got married. So as I said things were mostly good. My parents marriage had broken down but they remain very good friends so we are very lucky and my mum has gone on to meet someone new so was probably just at her happiest.

That brings us to last year, when our lives were turned well and truly upside down. Mum's cancer came back. And it has spread. Again, let's just think about how unfair that is. After everything she's been though. Once again, just when life was good for her - BOOM. And this BOOM was the biggest and ugliest of them all. The cancer has spread into her spine, hip and liver. This time there is no cure, only management. That management started within days of diagnosis, with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Everyone has bad side effects from these treatments, especially chemo, but it hit my mum extra hard. She was hospitalised several times during treatment, including a whole week just before Christmas last year.

It was quite a nightmare time and made her question if chemotherapy was really the best thing to help her. This triggered her to look into alternative treatments, even if they could be used in conjunction with future to chemotherapy if and when it's needed.

The good news is, it has been 6 months since chemo and her cancer is stable. So this is where we need your help. She has found immunotherapy treatment in Germany that will help to keep it that way. The treatment is going to cost £35,750...

My mum has given up her whole life for me and my sister and now I feel like she deserves something back. So We would appreciate everyone's help in raising as much money as possible.

Thank you so much!