Pals rally for Disneyland dream mum in ‘incurable’ cancer battle
MOTHER-OF-TWO SAYS SHE WAS MISDIAGNOSED BEFORE DEVASTATING NEWS
A MUM had just welcomed her daughter into the world when she was shocked to learn she had bowel cancer – after three years of being misdiagnosed with another illness.
After multiple rounds of treatment, Claire Gunn, 40, ‘beat the cancer,’ only to later find it had spread.
She faces a devastating terminal diagnosis which would leave her two children without their mum.
Friends are now coming together to help raise money to help the young family’s dream come true – a trip to Disneyland Paris to ‘make memories’ together.
Claire, from Reddish, Stockport, had gone to her GP with a raft of symptoms.
Doctors believed she had irritable bowel syndrome and prescribed medications, says Claire. But in 2019, just a few months after the birth of daughter Ava-Mae, Claire went back to her GP as medication was having little effect, and her problems continued.
“I was misdiagnosed with IBS,” Claire said. “The GP told me ‘we can’t work out what’s wrong with you. They supplied me with a load of different tablets, they probably didn’t help. I went to my GP with a really achy leg one day, and the doctor said ‘we’ll have to get you to hospital.’ The doctors thought it may have been something to do with my appendix. Then they realised it had been perforated and burst. The cancer had actually gone through my appendix and my bowel had to be removed. I was diagnosed with bowel cancer when my daughter was four months old.”
Claire, who was just
38 when she was diagnosed with cancer, began chemotherapy and surgery to curtail the disease.
Last year, tests gave her the ‘all-clear’ – but medics later discovered the cancer had spread.
“In January of this year, I was due to have surgery to have my colostomy bag reversed,” she said. “When I woke up, the bag was still there and I thought, ‘oh no, what’s happened?’”
“The doctors found out the cancer had spread to my gall bladder and liver. I had to have more treatment, chemotherapy again.”
Now, Claire says she is in ‘limbo’ as she waits for medics to decide whether she is a candidate for a radical treatment involving yet more surgery and chemotherapy.
If she qualifies for the operation, she could have ‘five years.’ But if not, Claire’s prognosis is just ‘one to three years.’ Either way, the operation will only prolong her life, as she is currently told the cancer is ‘incurable.’ “I hope I’m a good enough candidate, I’m young and I have two children,” Claire said. Her friends are trying to raise money to send the family on the trip of a lifetime to Disneyland Paris to ‘make memories,’ in case she deteriorates further and does not qualify for more treatment. The mum says it would ‘mean the world’ to her children, little Ava-Mae, born in 2019, and 21-year-old Joshua. Claire’s friends said: “We really want
We really want to raise funds to send our best friend on the trip of a lifetime with Josh and Ava-Mae
Claire’s friends
to raise the funds to send our best friend on the trip of a lifetime with Josh and Ava-Mae. Claire really is the most beautiful, kind, generous and loving person to anyone that knows her or meets her.”
Claire said: “Even my 21-year-old would be excited for Disneyland. Just to have that family time, the opportunity to make memories, you never know how long you’ve got.”
To see her appeal, search ‘Helping to make Claire’s wish come true’ on GoFundMe.