Help Lynne fight Terminal stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer

"All that I am or hope to be - I owe to my Mother"

My name is Sarah Terry and I have started this give-a-little page to help my Mum "Lynne Terry" in her fight with Pancreatic Cancer. You only get 1 Mum and I vow to do everything possible to help her on this journey and try to ease her pain. She is my best friend, my rock and simply the best Mother a daughter could ever wish for. I cannot imagine my life without her, and I hope that you can help us on our journey.

I am hoping to raise money for Mum to continue on with her IV Vitamin C infusions here in Christchurch, which so far have immensely improved her quality of life and general well-being. We are also hoping to use some of the money raised for Mum to try a non-funded chemotherapy drug called "Abraxane". Currently this drug is approved here for the use in Breast Cancer, but not yet in Pancreatic Cancer. Abraxane is widely used in the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer overseas and is currently funded in both the UK and USA. This drug increases the chances of Mum still being here with us in 12 months time, and currently this drug is only available in New Zealand through the private sector. This drug comes at a large cost to our family.

All I wish for Mum, is that she has the freedom to enjoy her days here and make memories with her family that will be treasured forever.

Please help me to give my Mum a fighting chance against the dreadful statistics of Pancreatic Cancer and let our family keep our Mum, Wife, Sister, Aunty and loving Gran for as long as we can.

This is my Mum's story:

Mum was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic Pancreatic Cancer in Dec 2014 after the medical professionals failed to pick up any sign that anything was going wrong inside her body. She had been complaining to doctors since July 2014 of an extremely sore back with severe pain radiating through from her stomach. She had been in for CT Scans, Ultra Sounds, MRI tests and nothing was picked up. She even went so far as to ask if she had cancer, to which she was told "no".

She was referred to different specialists who all tried different treatments to help. She even tried steroid injections in her spine to alleviate the pain, but clearly they were all overlooking and missing the bigger picture. It wasn't until the end of November 2014 when she presented herself at Christchurch Hospital's Emergency Department, that the medical team began to take a closer look at her previous scans. It was then that she was hit with the devastating news, "she did have cancer!"

Initially she was told it was Bile Duct Cancer, and only in the first week of December 2014 were we told that it was Pancreatic Cancer and it had spread to her Liver, Lungs, Aorta and Shoulder. As you can imagine this news came as a complete shock and was absolutely devastating for us all. How can something that has spread so far throughout your body, simply be missed, and be allowed to progress this far without being picked up? Looking back at her scans now, the specialists involved have stated that her cancer simply was not picked up, and was overlooked by a handful of different radiologists and medical experts. It was there in clear evidence on all of her scans, but heartbreakingly missed.

Mum is a primary school teacher and has been teaching special needs children for the last 30 years. She was still working right up until she received this heartbreaking news. Her life has taken a dramatic turn in the last 8 weeks. She has been denied any surgical options and at the most, the palliative chemotherapy drug she is on will give her a 22% chance of survival in 12 months time.

These statistics are pretty poor, and so hard to comprehend in the space of 2 months. How can someone go from working and having such an active life, to being cut down and given only palliative options for her treatment?

The sad story is, that if her cancer had been picked up earlier, and the medical professionals involved had looked harder into her results, she would have a fighting chance against this type of aggressive cancer, and surgery would be a viable option for her. She would be able to enjoy a longer life and not be suffering the way she currently is.

Mum is 66 years old with 4 grown children( 3 sons and 1 daughter) all living here in NZ. She is married to David and has been for 43 years. She has 10 wonderful grandchildren who are everything to her and she spends every spare moment of her life with them. She is the most energetic, kindest and loving lady that has ever graced my life. She has spent most of her life helping other people, and I truly believe that she now deserves a chance for people to help her out with this difficult journey she is on.

Mum started IV Vitamin C infusions about 5 weeks ago and we are noticing on and around the days that she has the Vitamin C, she has an energy like nothing we have seen in the last 8 weeks. She can get up and walk around easily, and she is able to feel some slight normality in her daily life. She has significantly less nausea on these days and finds that she does not need to have a daytime sleep either. The Vitamin C is simply giving her a better quality of life.

There is so much research going on around the world about Vitamin C, and more and more information is slowly coming out about the role it plays in Cancer. Lab studies have shown that it slows down the growth of certain tumors, and that tumours with higher levels of Vitamin C were less aggressive and slower to spread. The Otago School of Medicine here in Christchurch is currently raising money to get it's own trial underway.

https://uoalumni.otago.ac.nz/vitamin-c-cancer

Because Pancreatic Cancer is one of the most aggressive Cancers around, with a very low survival rate (5% of patients live for 5 years), we want to try and give her the utmost quality of life possible during this tough time.

After a meeting yesterday (Thursday 6th Feb 2015) Mum has been given no other option, except to enjoy the quality of her life from here on in, and has been told she might only have several months left here to enjoy with her family.

Obviously we wish to try anything to help her condition. Right now our only option is to continue on with the Vitamin C Infusions 3 times per week, and if possible, have access to the unfunded drug "Abraxane". This all comes at a very high cost to the family, and is why we started this page for Mum.

Mum has 3 IV's permanently in her body. A picc line directly into her heart, an IV with 24hr constant infusion of medications into the tissue of her arm and another one going into her chest. She has had several procedures done since mid December to help alleviate her pain including Lung Drains and a Celiac Plexus Block.

At the end of December Mum developed a series of large clots in her Lungs, and was told that she wouldn't make it through until Christmas. Another devasting blow all in the space of 3-4 weeks. All her family were told to come and say goodbye to her, she was given her last rites by a priest and I even managed to pull together my own wedding within 24hrs so I could have my Mum there to share in my special day with me. Luckily thanks to some miracle, she pulled through and proved all the medical staff wrong. She has since been admitted to hospital 8 times in January alone, and all we want is for her to be able to enjoy her quality of life from here on in.

We hope that by raising money, Mum can continue on with her Vitamin C Infusions, fulfill some of her dying wishes and enjoy a better quality of life.

A life with more energy, and one that does not involve constant lengthy stays in hospital.

A life where she can have more energy to play with her Grandchildren and have the strength to have a day out with her family.

A life where she gets more good days than bad days, and one where she can feel a sense of normality in her life.

She is such a loving and giving person having dedicated much of her life to helping others. She has such passion and enthusiasm for helping children with special needs and is truly the most kindest, graceful, selfless and caring woman that I have ever met. She has spent a great deal of her life putting other people's needs before her own and now she is the one in need of some help herself.

All that I ask is for Mum to enjoy her life.

Please help me to raise the funds needed to enable her to continue on with her Vitamin C therapy and give her access to a drug which will increase the chance of her being here in 12 months time.

We pray for a miracle everyday and who knows....with your help we may all be part of one in the making.

Perhaps her story can help others and pave the way for further research.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my Mum's story. We can't change the fact that we are walking this road, and that her cancer was heartbreakingly missed, but we can help Mum's journey be a little easier and try to give her the best chance possible from here on in.