A Longford woman battling a rare form of cancer and given just weeks to live has spoken of her desperate battle to raise over £400,000 (€452,000) in a bid to fly to Mexico for potentially life saving treatment.
Laura Gilmore Anderson (35) was told by doctors on Thursday to go home and spend her final days with her family as all preventive treatments used to stop the spread of the neuroendocrine tumours that had ravaged her body over the last three years had failed.
Ms Anderson, who lives in Scotland with her husband Paul, received the news just days after enjoying a trip to Disneyland in Paris.
“I had a scan on Monday because I had been feeling unwell and had been in a lot of pain,” she said.
Owen Doyle: World Rugby should leave the lineout alone and fix the scrum
Anjelica Huston: ‘There was no shame to having fun with playing women of a certain age’
‘Where I come from, people don’t do medicine. It’s not on your radar’: how a new generation of doctors is being trained
Secret Teacher: Too many school leaders bow to parent power. They bend the knee or rarely back their staff
“My stomach was swollen and I just thought I was going in to get it drained but then I got the terrible news.”
In July 2021, thanks to fundraising on both sides of the Irish Sea, Ms Anderson flew to Mexico for treatment. She later discovered her cancer had spread to her liver and lymphatic system, resulting in receptor radionuclide (PRRT) therapy in Glasgow.
The Longford woman took to Facebook earlier this week and posted a video appeal, resulting in a GoFundMe online appeal in her name reaching over £270,000 (€300,000) by Friday afternoon. Her target is £420,000.
“The new mass on my pelvis which is 10x7cm which is very big and my liver is nearly covered,” she revealed.
“I just felt I was back in July 2020 when I first got the diagnosis. When you are told ‘Laura you are not responding to any of the preventions in treatment we are offering, we don’t want you to try chemotherapy because you are not going to come out of the hospital again and it will shorten your timespan to live, that we just want you to enjoy the time left with your family’, how do you take that?”
She said she was in “sheer panic” and recorded the video after leaving the hospital for fresh air and to speak to her sister. “It was there that I did a video and it got a phenomenal response,” she said.
“Due to the complexity of my case and before we found out this news we thought I would need three treatments, but now it’s looking like six to nine treatments of immunotherapy,” she said, adding that she also faces having to undergo cancer treatment in Germany before flying to Mexico.
Ms Anderson’s condition went undiagnosed for three years despite visits to her GP and having spent months off work owing to crippling pain.
Praising those who had contributed to her appeal, she said: “If only love and kindness could cure me, I would be cured right now. I am too young to die, I am only 35 and I don’t want to give up. I am still breathing and all I can say is ‘Please God, give me strength’.”
