Help family visit Tess, a terminally ill Kiwi in London

Just over four and a half years ago Tess was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through a mastectomy, reconstruction, chemo and radiotherapy. After that she went back to her normal routine including regular check ups. Last year, four months after having her second daughter she was told that her cancer was back .. not only was it back, but with a vengeance. It seemed that every update we had from her went from bad to worse, it had metastised, and it was in her lymph’s, bones and liver. By the time the diagnosis was fully formed in October she had been sick for over nine months and she ended up in hospital with respiratory failure. We rushed to be with her fearing the worst, hoping and praying for a wrong diagnosis or a better outcome. Against the odds she pulled through and was home by the beginning of December in time for Christmas with her girls.

At Easter she had to make a difficult decision – treatment that might kill her or no treatment and maybe 8 weeks left with her family. She chose the treatment so she could have more time with her family. In July, her baby turned one and she was so happy to be here for that, at the beginning of August her older daughter turned six and at the end of August Tess will have her 38th birthday. She continues to struggle daily with her illness, it’s terminal and while she has been blessed with extra time to spend with her family however we know that this will not continue. The days are getting harder and as tough as she is it is a loosing battle but she is not going without a fight. As a family we would like to do something nice for Tess’s birthday .. One thing we know she responds to is having her own family visit. As you will appreciate London is a long way from NZ and our family has used our collective savings to visit at the end of last year / earlier this year so we are fundraising for an airfare so we can tell Tess for her birthday that someone will be there soon.

The funds donated will be used for a return airfare and dependant upon the family member going it will be return to either Wellington, Auckland or Melbourne (so approximately $2,400-$3,000).

If there are enough funds then we may be able to send more family members.