Our Story

I'm Nina and I'm fundraising for my 38 year old husband's life. 
It all began in August 2018 with a slight comment from a friend that, "Ross looks quiet poorly this morning". After dismissing it briefly and assuring all that he feels fine, we got on with our day without further thought on the matter. The following days I noticed he was quite tired and fatigued but again, we had been working hard and it went unnoticed for a week or so. Finally one morning, I looked at him and noticed that his face and eyes were very Jaundiced. He made an appointment with the doctor immediately which in turn was referred to Accident and Emergency the very same morning.

 

 After months of multiple misdiagnosis and stressful hospital stents, on the 19th of October 2018, Ross was finally diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. 
The news came as a huge shock. It was at first very difficult to comprehend. Doctors were brief and deferred any useful questions to the expertise of the next specialist, the surgeon, which in turn left us in the lurch for another few days.
After a weekend of emotions, fear, regret, and trying to come to terms with the news as well as breaking it to family and friends we met with his surgeon on Monday morning. 

We were told the tumor is operable but comes at a cost. Whipple surgery in which they remove the gallbladder, quarter of his stomach, duodenum and the head of the pancreas.  The surgery was on the 30th October 2018 he had some complications but all round it
went as well as can be expected.

 

After we returned home we did research on pancreatic Cancer
and what we researched was frightening,  the Survival Rate According to the American Cancer Society, for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one-year relative Survival Rate is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. that means that only 7 out of 100 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive 5 years!!! This was terrifying news to both of us, and we refused to simply become another statistic when medicine is on the brink of so many breakthroughs for cancer research. Because of these  bleak outcomes have decided to seek out what the latest medical research has to offer, this lifesaving CAR-T-Cell therapy which comes at a very high cost but it will drastically improve his odds of survival. This treatment is NOT available in IRELAND so we must now plan the long trip to Thailand and arrange for the treatment as well recuperation and healing pre and post treatment. 

Time is of the essence and we need these fund so as to move forward and give Ross a greater chance at life!

Ross is a very caring  loving husband and father who always wants people around him to be happy even at his own expense, Anyone who has met Ross knows him to be very giving of his time and energy.  I know for a fact that Ross has touched the lives of many in very positive ways. 

Ross and I are like all other couples, we have dreams for the future and things we want to do before we die, we never expected that at the age of 38 our dreams could be destroyed by this cruel Disease.

Without funding Ross will not get this lifesaving therapy and our family's future will be very uncertain.