Mum with 25 cancerous tumours raises £11.5k to help others
A MUM who has 25 cancerous tumours all over her body raised £11,500 for charity by organising a special lunch – which she left hospital to attend.
Christine James, who has a rare form of the disease called sarcoma, said the generosity of her friends and family has kept her positive through her ordeal.
The 65-year-old started radiotherapy yesterday at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff in the hope of reducing a lump in her groin which is growing around a main artery.
As well as taking two clot-busting drugs, she also needs 40 different tablets every day which her daughter Katy and husband Roger help to administer.
Despite the severity of her illness, she has made it her mission to give something back to the “wonderful” medical staff who have cared for her.
And in one fundraising lunch alone, which was held at the Park Plaza hotel in Cardiff on March 17, an incredible £11,500 was raised.
The money will be shared equally between Sarcoma UK and Velindre Cancer Centre.
“It was just wonderful,” said Christine, from Penylan, Cardiff.
“The night before the lunch I was rushed into Velindre with an infection. I was devastated to think I wasn’t going to get there in time.
“I was sent down for a CT scan which showed that the seven tumours in my lungs were growing very quickly, which means they have to move very quickly with the radiotherapy.
“The doctors weren’t going to let me out of hospital but, after I explained the situation, they agreed to let me out of hospital as long as I promised I would go straight back in that afternoon – which of course I did about 5.30pm. I felt like Cinderella!”
Christine, who has tumours in her lungs, liver, and rib cage among other places, said she was greeted with a standing ovation from the 129 women in attendance at the hotel.
She added: “I walked into that room to thunderous applause. I had to turn around as I thought somebody famous was behind me but no – all that noise was for me.”
She said organising charity fundraising events, the next of which takes place on May 19 at Cornerstones in Charles Street, Cardiff, was keeping her spirits up.
“I’m the type of person who needs to have a project otherwise I’d be sat in a chair waiting to die,” she added.
“My cancer is very aggressive and I think I’m trying to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the amount of tumours on one body.
“The generosity of people has been completely overwhelming.”
Christine said she was on holiday in Dublin when she first began to experience a pain in her leg.
She then went for an X-ray and MRI scan at Spire Cardiff Hospital in July 2016 when the pains and aching in her leg failed to subside.
Medics confirmed they had found a “mass” in her groin and found sarcoma in her sciatic nerve and the pelvis bone.
The mum said she was now in “constant pain”, cannot wear particular shoes, and is not allowed to drive or fly.
Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels and tissues.
About 3,800 new cases of sarcoma are diagnosed each year in the UK which makes up approximately 1% of all cancer diagnoses.