HELP SAVE OUR NHS ANGEL
Nurse’s cancer drugs denied by health bosses
AN NHS nurse with terminal cancer forced to raise funds to stay alive said last night she would give every penny she had for an extra week with her children.
Laura Harris, 42, right, has been battling bowel cancer since early last year when she was given just three
‘Nothing can prepare you to be the patient and told you are dying’
months to live. The mother-of-three endured bouts of gruelling chemotherapy but the cancer spread throughout her body, leaving her in excruciating pain.
Her last resort is now several courses of the drug Bevacizumab, which has not been available on the NHS for patients with bowel cancer since 2015.
Laura last night paid tribute to the generosity of the public after raising over £44,000 for two blocks of treatment she hopes could add months, if not years, to her life.
Today the Daily Express calls on its army of readers to give as generously as they can to help the dedicated nurse, who has worked for the NHS for over a decade caring for the terminally ill.
Laura last night told of her “excitement” at beginning her new life-lengthening regime on Monday alongside a standard chemotherapy session.
And if £100,000 can be raised for Laura, she will be able to pay for her own “maintenance doses” of the drug, granting her more precious time with her family and friends.
Laura, of Barnstaple, north Devon, said: “I know what is coming. This is a chance to extend my life. It’s not going to save it. I know that.
“For me and my family extending my life by weeks, months or years has no price tag. I will continue to fight with every breath left in me.”
Laura has a husband, Paul, two children, Molly, 13, and Noah, 16, and a stepson, and is also caring for her elderly mother, Carol. She brought her wedding to Paul forward after her shock diagnosis in January last year.
Laura said: “Nothing can prepare you to be the patient and being told you are dying.
“Before I was diagnosed the pain was getting worse to the point I could not get the kids to school. I was crawling up and down the stairs and the GP didn’t know what was wrong.
“On the day I went into hospital my stomach looked five months pregnant and I was in excruciating pain.
“My husband Paul took me to A&E and they jumped on me as soon as I went through the door.
“I knew the situation was far gone and they gave me a prognosis of three months.
“The hardest part was the realisation I would not be around for much longer. I am terrified of dying.
“I wish I was someone who had come to peace with that fact but I have not come to peace with anything and am so scared of death.” She astounded colleagues by returning to work to care for fellow cancer patients at North Devon District Hospital following her diagnosis. And she urged everyone suffering changes in their bowel habits to contact their GP, suggesting she could have been saved from cancer if she had listened to her own body. Laura, who has worked as a cancer nurse specialist for more than a decade, said: “If I can neglect the signs and symptoms then anyone can.
“In retrospect I had symptoms for a couple of years. I am a busy mum and carer. Your health is the last thing on your mind but I have learned the hard way. Don’t ignore your symptoms. Go to your GP. Go back again.
“If things don’t get better go and don’t be afraid to say, ‘I am worried this is serious.’ I wish I had gone years ago. I would have found out years earlier and there’s a chance I would have survived.”
She added: “It is a difficult way to find out who loves you. Hold your friends and family close. The things you regret
are not what you’ve done but what you haven’t done. I am in the midst of the most wonderful relationship with my husband. At least I have known that quality of love. I feel incredibly blessed.”
Last night donations to Laura’s fund were up to £45,000 meaning she can undergo at least two blocks of treatment with the drug, also known as Avastin.
She said: “I am completely overwhelmed by how generous strangers have been.
“If this works, there is the option to stay on maintenance doses with it. Some people have carried on for three years. It is all moving so fast and it needs to because the cancer is moving fast. We have enough money for the initial set of cycles and if I respond well there is no need for me to stop having the drug.
“I am so hopeful now. I have read about people who have still been alive on it a year later.
“The support from the public and strangers has meant absolutely everything. It sounds silly but in the dark moments in the middle of the night when you are scared those sort of things pull you through.”
Laura added: “I am excited, I am doing something positive. Chemo was only just holding things back. We needed to do something and it is a last resort.
“If I was an older person I would have probably died by now. I have a huge amount of cancer in my body.
“I have cancer in all the vertebrae of my spine. It is awful.”
Husband Paul told how the couple had a “beautiful blessing” in their back garden after getting married last year. He said: “Laura was diagnosed in January and we had been engaged for a year. She tearfully looked at me and said, ‘What are we going to do now?’ and I said, ‘We are going to get married.’
“I had proposed a year before with the initial thought of a wedding in 2019 but we agreed to bring the date forward to May 27 last year.
“We had a blessing at home with a marquee in the back garden and then a signing at the register office and it was such a lovely day. We are making memories now.”
Paul added: “We cannot believe how kind and generous people have been. It has absolutely blown us both away.
“The drug can extend her life. It might be weeks, it might be a few months but when you look at it in pounds versus time spent with family it is priceless.” Laura said: “What I can promise my donators right now is that I will continue to fight with every breath left in me and I will continue to use the publicity garnered by my story to warn others not to neglect their health.
“If it can happen to a cancer nurse then sadly it can happen to anyone. I’m not finished on this earth just yet.”
In a tribute to Laura on her crowdfunding page, Stephen Troman praised her heroism. He said: “You are an angel.”
●To donate to Laura’s fund visit www.gofundme.com/lauratreatment-fund