Help out mum in cancer struggle
RACHEL Fox may be fighting the hardest battle of her life but she is determined to continue being the mother she always has been to her four daughters.
The former childcare worker’s breast cancer diagnosis four- and- a- half years ago has seen her undergo a single mastectomy and even taken her to Sri Lanka for holistic treatment. Despite ongoing treatments of chemotherapy and radiation her cancer has now metastasized into her spine and she has become paralysed from the ribs down.
Cousin Michelle Bowen is now reaching out to the community for financial help for the Fox family from her home in the Hunter Valley.
“It’s heartbreaking but I am very determined to give Rachel the best quality of life she can have,” Ms Bowen said.
She has set up a Go Fund Me page seeking support for the ongoing medical expenses associated with Rachel’s battle.
Rachel’s husband is a fly- in fly- out worker in western Queensland who spends his weeks “off” caring for his wife at home.
“That additional income is the only way they’ve sort of waded through this,” Ms Bowen said.
“In recent times they’re really struggling to meet the outcomes to pay for the various medications and treatments.”
Ms Bowen understands what the wider community can achieve when they come together to support a community member.
She and her daughter Mel- anie raised $ 85,000 for her granddaughter Aria who battled a rare genetic disorder which paralysed and eventually killed her in 2013.
“It’s hard seeing her paralysed as Aria was because she’s always been so active and a very hands- on mum,” Ms Bowen said. “They are a very deserving family, they’ve always been proactive in their community in helping other people that needed help.”
Rachel continues to play an active role in the family, chopping up vegetables for dinner and attending her children’s sporting matches all bundled up warm in her wheelchair.
“Mentally she is a very strong person but she hits lows. It’s a struggle for a mum like her to be paralysed and to know that her potential outcomes are limited,” Ms Bowen said.
“She’s been told she’s ter- minal but the time frame on that really doesn’t have an answer. She has young girls at home that need their mother.”
Rachel has been a warrior her entire life and this is just another battle. At 15, she was dragged under a 4WD near the Willows Shopping Centre.
“She underwent 19 surgeries, she had a modelling career with June Dally- Watkins at the time and had to abandon that,” Ms Bowen said.