Readers for funding her pioneering cancer drugs I can now watch my baby grow up thanks to YOU

“I can’t th thank Sunday People readers and e everyone who donated enough. Th Their generosity has bought me a future with Ava. I just can’ can’t put a price on that.”

The Sunday People’s appeal saw readers help to raise rais £ 35,000, so Haley could have pioneering immunot immunotherapy.

The pr procedure trains the immune sy system to recognise and kill cancer cells. But research is at an early s stage, so the drugs are not available t to most on the NHS. Last month, Haley was given the news she and pa partner Ryan Mcshane, 27, had been wa waiting for.

Haley, from Carluke, South Lanarkshire, said said: “My family tried not to show their em emotions, but Dad cried when I told him the cancer had gone.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry before.”

Pharmacist H Haley always longed to be a mum but s struggled to conceive after being diagnosed diag with endometriosis, a uterus disorder.

In excruciat excruciating pain, she made the decision to h have a hysterectomy in February 2017 2017, resigned to never conceiving natu naturally.

But surgeons w were unable to remove her whole wom womb and, five months later, she was st stunned to learn she was pregnant wi with Ava.

“Ava was my first medical miracle. Now I’ve had a second,” Haley said.

She had seve several abnormal smear tests tes and was being checked ch every six m months before her hy hysterectomy.

But after giving birth in March last year, she stopped getting reminders – and now suspects they were sent to her old address.

Haley started bleeding heavily when Ava was 10 weeks old and initially thought it was because of the birth. But t he symptoms continued and she went for a smear test last June.

It came back clear but her instincts screamed at her that something was still badly wrong.

She paid for a private scan last September, when doctors broke the devastat devastating news.

Haley said: “It was a total shock to hear the word cancer. I phoned Ryan and burs burst out crying.”

She w was told radiotherapy was too much of a risk, as her womb op had left vita vital organs exposed.

In Instead, she had six rounds of chemo ch – but was left shattered in February, when she was told it had failed.

Medics broke the news that Haley’s H cancer was at stage four and an had spread to her bowel, and an there was nothing more they could co do.

She said: “When you hear the words stage 4, you think, ‘I’m not going to be here, that’s it’. I asked the doctors, ‘What else is available?’ They told me I could try immunotherapy but couldn’t get it on the NHS.

“That night, I was in so much shock I went to a birthday party and had a gi n l i ke nothing had happened. “The tears came after. “I thought about Ava, , and how much that she needed me.

“I couldn’t bear the e thought of missing her first t day at school.”

On average only a fifth h of patients with stage four cervical rvical cancan cer live more than five years.

But reading about pioneering immunotherapy gave Haley hope.

A University College London trial found a quarter of women either went into complete remission or had tumours shrink significantly after. The only stumbling block was the cost, as Haley discovered it came with a price tag of up to £50,000.

Then concerned pals started a fund-raising page. Donations rolled in after we shared sh her plea for help in M March. Soon, she had £ 35,000. 35 Haley initially thought th she’d have to travel t abroad, but found a Glasgow clinic which could c administer the drugs. d Now, she is looking in to the future.

She and Ryan have booked boo their wedding for April 202 2021, and Ava was christened last month.

She said: “These are the moments I thought I might not see. “It’s amazing to be able to look forward to things.”

Voice of the Sunday People: P14