Cancer-stricken mum too frail to travel for care

A mum-of-four ravaged by cancer can no longer travel abroad for potentially life-extending treatment after being left paralysed from the waist down.

Samantha Ross has been desperately raising funds to pay for immunotherapy in Germany to give her more time with her children.

But despite two bouts of treatment the 42-year-old, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2015, was told in May it had spread to her bones, leading to cracks in her spine.

Two weeks ago, her vertebrae collapsed, crushing her spinal cord and leaving her wheelchairbound.

Despite now being unable to travel, Mrs Ross describes it as “just a bump in the road”.

She said: “I just want to be with my children and have time with them. This has been a huge shock as it’s all happened so quickly.

“I walked my daughter to school on the last day of term. My legs were wobbly, but I could walk. That was on a Friday. I

‘This has been a huge shock as it’s all happened so quickly’

came downstairs on the Monday and my left leg collapsed beneath me.

“I went to hospital on the Tuesday and by Wednesday I’d lost all feeling in my legs.

A tearful Mrs Ross says her husband Michael and children Adam, 22, Ben, 18, Caitlin, 12 and Georgia, nine, have been amazing.

Mrs Ross, of Cordingham Close, Seasalter, has closed her fundraising page and is hoping to use the £17,300 raised to have her home adapted.

Mrs Ross is awai t ing an appointment with her oncologist, but she has already been told by doctors that they are unable to operate on her spine to help her walk as the cancer has spread too much.