Teen daughter’s fund for mum’s bucket list trip
will always have cancer. My tumour has shrunk, it is at 8cm now. I have to have scans every three – four months to check for growth.”
She says Bethany has set herself a target of £1,000 and had raised £130 so far.
Claire, who lives at Brackenhall with husband Lee and their three youngest children, said: “Bethany wants to try raise money to send me to Harry Potter World in Orlando to make some fantastic memories. “It’s the only thing on my bucket list. “I have always been a Harry Potter fan and have been desperate to go to Harry Potter world for a long time, even before I was diagnosed.”
Claire is hopeful that they can save enough money for her and Lee to go to Florida with the three younger children including Bethany and sisters Amy, 16, and Keeley, nine.
But she is worried that they won’t be able to raise the money – about £7,000 – before she is too poorly to go.
“At the minute the cancer is OK but it could come back at any time. It’s not going to be cured.
“I also want to raise awareness of Ewing’s sarcoma as it is not a well-known cancer. It started with pain in my foot then after a few weeks it started up my leg and thigh.’’
Doctors initially thought she was suffering from nerve damage.
After several hospital visits and MRI scans over a two-year period, Claire says she was finally given an accurate diagnosis after visiting a private consultant.
She then spent nine weeks in hospital and underwent further tests including a bone marrow biopsy.
Following 14 sessions of chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation therapy Claire was told that the tumour had shrunk but that there was nothing that could be done to rid her body of cancer.
Claire said she wanted to raise awareness of Ewing’s sarcoma, which is a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue.
The condition occurs most frequently in teenagers and young adults, with patients usually experiencing extreme bone pain. Sarcoma UK is the only cancer charity in the UK focusing on all types of sarcoma.
To donate visit: https://www.gofundme. com/claires-journey