nickybarrow15065

[nickybarrow15065]

Hi all, thank you for taking the time to read our story.

My name is Nicky, wife to my lovely husband Jim.

Things took a drastic turn in May 2022 when Jim was diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 bowel cancer that had spread to his liver. I knew cancer was a cruel disease but never in a million years did I expect it to turn our worlds up side down in the way it has!

Jim began gruelling chemotherapy shortly after diagnosis leaving him bedridden for days on end, however he had an excellent response to treatment and things were looking positive.

After recovering from this op he went on to undergo more chemo, an intense course of radiotherapy and caught Covid twice! Unfortunately Jim did not have such a good response to the chemo and the cancer started to progress.

If the side effects of chemo and radiotherapy wasn’t enough to contend with the tumour was also pushing on nerves causing unbearable pain in his back and rectum. He spent 2 weeks in St Helena hospice in July for pain management and after many hurdles managed to come home and continue with chemo.

However Jim’s pain returned with a vengeance along with a high temperature which saw him back in hospital. It was discovered Jim’s tumour had perforated causing a large abscess in his bowel and was the cause of ongoing infections. This was managed for 7 weeks between hospital and hospice and eventually after much conflicting information, finally it was drained. Wow what a relief, maybe now Jim could get some quality of life back and we could enjoy some much needed family time.

Jim has now moved on to third line treatment Lonsurf which is an oral chemotherapy. After much research I have discovered another drug Bevacizumab, also known as Avastin that studies show strong evidence to suggest it works effectively alongside Lonsurf and has shown to extend overall survival compared to Lonsurf alone.

Unfortunately this drug is not available on the NHS and has to be self funded privately.

This is an opportunity we CANNOT turn down, after the battle Jim has been through he deserves the chance to stabilise the cancer in the hope it will improve his quality of life.

This drug is extremely expensive to fund. We are looking at over £1000 per treatment which is given every two weeks plus additional fees for follow up consultations. For 12 months of treatment we are looking at around £25,000!

Just to add into the mix, Jim was made redundant after diagnosis so as you can imagine we are not in a position to fund this alone.

Asking for help is not something that comes easily to either of us and we have thought long and hard about whether to set this page up. However, without additional support we wont be able to fund this treatment.

Jim, nor I are ready to give up, he has two young children that need him here for as long as possible, as well as the rest of his family and friends!

If you are unable to donate then please don’t worry. If you could share Jim’s story to raise awareness of bowel cancer that would also be amazing.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and thank you in advance.

Loads of love Nicky Jim, Archie and Izzy xx