Cancer mum's life-saving plea
A Tiverton mum fighting cancer is backing an appeal from Cancer Research UK to save more lives, as new figures show one in two people will be diagnosed with the disease.
With around three weeks to go until the General Election, Ellie King, 32, is rallying people across the South West to get behind the charity’s Cross Cancer Out campaign and make sure their future MP is committed to beating cancer sooner.
Ellie was preparing for the birth of her baby in November 2012 when she received the news that no expecting mother would ever wish to hear – that she had cancer.
Living in Tiverton, aged 29 and working full time, Ellie’s world was turned upside down.
At 22 weeks of her pregnancy Ellie started to bleed but she never imagined that it would be symptoms leading to diagnosis of Cervical Cancer.
The first thought was of her baby and being able to get to a safe point for the baby to be delivered and starting chemotherapy allowed this to happen. Ten weeks prior to her due date Amelia was born and cared for in the neonatal baby unit at Exeter Hospital.
Ellie started an intense course of daily radiotherapy and weekly chemotherapy and after six months was given the all clear in May 2013.
Sadly six months later upon a routine check up Ellie and her partner Dan were given the news that Ellie’s cancer had returned, but with a terminal prognosis.
The cancer was now in her pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes and only palliative chemotherapy was offered. Ellie received six cycles of chemotherapy before her body became resistant to it.
Ellie was treated at Exeter Hospital until they reached a point when they could no longer offer treatment. At this stage she was referred to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Surrey to discuss being involved in clinical trials that may help give Ellie valuable time with Dan and her baby daughter.
A year on Ellie is still making the journey and participating in clinical trials and has been encouraged to see that the last CT scan has shown some reduction in the tumours.
Ellie, now age 32, said: “Some people may think that driving to Sutton and back from Devon each fortnight is a huge commitment, but if that time spent travelling gives me more time with Amelia and Dan then I will keep going there as long as I can.”
“Dan and I recently married and celebrated our honeymoon and Amelia is now two and I cherish every day we spend together. Being a mum of a toddler and going through cancer treatment is hard but you find a way. If these trials can keep me here with my family I will do all it takes, any possibility of hope or cure I will grasp it.”
To highlight the campaign Ellie posed with an over-sized ‘prescription’ for the next Government. It underlines the need to ensure cancer patients receive the best treatment and are diagnosed early enough for that treatment to make a difference.
Current survival rates in the UK are still lagging behind other countries and so Ellie is prescribing more political support and increased investment for cancer patients now and in the future.
In England, in particular, nearly half of cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage when they are harder to treat successfully.
Ellie said: “I know firsthand we cannot underestimate the devastating impact the disease will have on families. So it’s really important that MPs listen to their constituents by putting cancer at the top of their political agenda.
“One in two people being diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lifetime is a striking statistic. Now more than ever it’s vital that the political drive to beat cancer matches the pace of progress in research.”
Ellie is calling on people in the South West to email their election candidates at www.cruk.org/crosscancerout and urge them to help save more lives, if elected.
She added: “I’m so grateful my cancer was detected early and for the treatment that I am receiving. That’s why I’m supporting the Cross Cancer Out campaign.
“I want to do everything I can to ensure that all cancer patients are given the best possible chance of surviving.”
The increase in the lifetime risk of getting cancer is primarily because more people are surviving into old age, when the disease is more common.
Cancer Research UK says more support for public awareness campaigns, increasing screening uptake and ensuring equal access to innovative evidence-based treatments are vital to improving cancer survival in the UK in the coming years.
Karen Davis, Cancer Research UK’s spokesperson for the South West, said: “We can’t avoid growing older, but we can prevent a crisis in the future by acting now to make our NHS cancer services among the best in the world.
“The next Government’s decisions will affect how fast and how far we progress in the next five years, towards our goal of ensuring that three in four people survive their cancer within the next 20 years.
“It is a big ambition but we know with the right political support we will get there sooner – so we’re asking all election candidates to make a commitment to ‘Cross Cancer Out’ and help save the lives of more people diagnosed with cancer.”
People the South West can email their election candidates at cruk.org/crosscancerout or join the conversation on twitter #CrossCancerOut.
