The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Mum in £55k Mexico cancer treatment bid
An Aberdeenshire mum is hoping to raise £55,000 so she can travel to Mexico for an alternative cancer treatment.
Elif Hector was diagnosed with stage four secondary cancer last June. The cancer has developed aggressively and she was recently told she has a life expectancy of “a few months”.
After hearing about the incredible success stories from patients who received alternative treatments in Mexico, her daughter, Tara Hector, decided to research the hospitals. She has now set up a GoFundMe page with the hope of giving her mum a chance to receive treatment.
“They didn’t have hope, but Mexico gave them hope,” Ms Hector, from Stonehaven, said. “It’s not guaranteed but if I have a chance I want to try it.”
More than £10,000 has been donated by supporters so far, but the Hectors are hoping to raise £55,000 to cover the treatment and travel expenses.
“My condition is very rare,” Ms Hector said. “The tumour grew over 19 years inside my body. I was visiting family in Turkey in 2012 and the doctors there discovered a mass in the lining of my lung. The tumour was already 15cm.”
Doctors told her the tumours were very “oppressive and rare” and said chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment would not be successful.
After hearing all her options, Ms Hector decided “watchful waiting” would be the best course of action. “I decided to not do anything and did my own research as well, finding I’d have more quality of life if I kept it,” she said.
Ms Hector, who moved to Scotland more than 32 years ago from Turkey, never stopped researching and in 2014 she travelled to Japan to obtain medication to help shrink the tumours.
The medication worked and after 18 months the tumours started to shrink. Unfortunately, she only had enough to last another six months. In April 2020, she said she felt something change. She spent 13 days in hospital and was told she would not survive surgery at that point.
The 56-year-old said her health has had a big impact on her life and led her to take early retirement after years of working for Aberdeenshire Council.
Ms Hector finally had surgery in Edinburgh in February 2021. She and daughter Tara, 26, hoped it would offer them a fresh start, but sadly more bad news followed. Surgeons removed a tumour the size of a basketball – weighing 10lb – and found that it was cancerous.
In June, her scans showed two new growths and her surgeon said he may have to perform another surgery.
“The scan in September showed it was metastasizing, so I couldn’t get the surgery,” she said.
Now she is desperate to raise the funds to get to Mexico, adding: “They are causing so much trouble for me, I’m struggling with everything.”