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Help family visit Tess, a terminally ill Kiwi in London

  • The last update

      22 September 2015

    Theresa passed away peacefully on Sunday 20th Sept at 11.25am, at the St Francis Hospice, after her long battle with cancer.

    Thanks to your generosity and help her Mum, sister and I were able to be with her during her last days and at the end.

    This page started out as a way to celebrate her birthday knowing that this would be her last and has become a celebration of her life.

    We are all so bereft and so very thankful that we were blessed to be here. Your help has meant so much to us .. I don't feel that I can express our thanks enough. You have given us an extraordinarily special gift, one that will always be treasured and is priceless.

    A donation to the St Francis Hospice will be made from the family to acknowledge the difficult work they do and how much support they gave Tess and us over the past two weeks.

    Arohanui (with all our love)

    Maria

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  • Not quite the update we wanted to give

      18 September 2015

    Dear friends

    This update is from Re (Tess's sister) and Matt (Tess's husband).

    The updates that Tess has been providing from her facebook page have been thought provoking, vulnerable and open so we will follow her lead on this update.

    Some of you will be aware that Tess came into hospice care on the 2nd of this month so that they could get her pain and nausea sorted. The aim was to get Tess's pain under control with a view to going home and seeing her oncologist to arrange more treatment. What has happened since then has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.

    We were told yesterday that the view of staff at the hospice and her oncologist is that she is not well enough to receive any more treatment. To continue with chemo would make things worse for Tess and that is something that none of us wish for her.

    Tess's illness has accelerated in the past few days and her neurological functions have deteriorated significantly. I'm sure if she was to say something it would be along the lines of 'it is a bit shit but it is what it is'.

    Tess's whanau / family would like to thank you all for your support and best wishes.

    Thank you for contributing to our page to raise money to give Tess a visiit from her family for her birthday. The response has been amazing and allowed Mum, Rose and I to travel (through Rugby World Cup hype) to the UK sooner than anticipated and this has afforded us the opportunity to be with Tess 24/7, while Matt and the girls are able to come and go as they need knowing that someone has Tess's back. While we haven't quite been able to celebrate her birthday we are able to celebrate her life.

    We don't know a lot about the last part of Tess's illness (she so hates it being called a journey) especially what it means regarding timeframes, except that by this time next week we should have a better idea about the rate of decline.

    We appreciate all your love and support and thank you for everything you've done for Tess and her whanau over the years. Keep praying for her as she fights to the end, but celebrate the good things she's done for and with all of us over the years.

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  • Things change

      11 September 2015

    Hi everyone

    Well it seems Murphy is a pessimist. My last update said we had tickets booked for the 16th however things have changed slightly so we are already here. Tess is currently an in patient at the hospice so they can help get her medication sorted. She had hit a rough patch for a few days and was unable to keep anything down and therefore the meds were a bit erratic. They now have her hooked up to a pump driver which delivers medication continuously over a 24 hr period and seems to be getting on top of the pain management. The nausea she was experiencing has diminished somewhat but her appetite has not returned .. There are two big packs of chezels that are untouched after 48 hrs which is just not normal for Tess.

    Mum and I are camping kiwi style at the hospice and Matt and the girls are visiting as often as possible. Tess is spending a lit of time sleeping (a combination of the disease and medication) and has bouts of confusion.

    Tess has another appointment with her oncologist next week so we will see what her latest clinical results say and what the next steps are.

    Love to you all ..

    Maria

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  • Two flights booked

      2 September 2015

    Wahoo.. I finally have had leave approved from work and now two return flights have been booked for the mother and I to travel to London on the 16th September. Thank you, thank you all so much. Tess is super excited and so are we.

    Rose is looking is sorting out her travel dates and once these are sorted I'll let you know.

    Most of my suitcase will be filled with Chezels, chocolate and various other goodies.

    xx

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  • It's nearly birthday time

      26 August 2015

    Dear Friends

    thank you all so much for your support and generous contributions to our dream of being able to give Tess a visit from home for her birthday. We are so humbled and feel very blessed to be provided with the ability to tell Tess that she has her mum and both sisters able to visit as her birthday present. Bryan is unable to come at this point in time but we will keep the page open and he may be able to get away in a couple of months time.

    As you can imagine Tess is VERY excited .. we have some logistics to work through - flipping rugby world cup has hiked up airfares and there are some dates with limited travel. Plus someone (namely myself) didn't read the small print properly so we are working through getting funds released prior to the official monthly timeframes.

    We hope that by mid September the mother and I will be with Tess and then we will overlap with Rose for at least a week. This means she will have family with her for 5-6 weeks (lucky Matt). It will be during that overlap week that the Bater girls will head off to do something special with Tess (yet to be determined based on how she is feeling).

    Tess's actual birthday is the 30th and she will be at some place called CentreParc hopefully having fun with Matt and the girls.

    I'll post another update once we have some confirmed travel dates.

    lots of love and thanks

    from all of us to all of you ..

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  • Day One

      20 August 2015

    Thank you so much to those of you who have already donated to our request for help. I'm abosulutely touched by the generosity of everyone. This started off with us trying to keep it secret but social media is so out there that Tess has already seen the page and is absolutely thrilled at the prospect of having family come visit. It has been very humbling to have so much support and so many of you care so deeply.

    Moderation is pending on the page as I've been asked to provide some specific information and have updated the page accordingly. Fingers crossed we make it through.

    xx Maria

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