- At the most desperate point in our lives we are crying out for help.
Please help us fund immunotherapy to treat my husband’s cancer so he can be around for our beautiful 3 year old twin boys as they grow up.
Who are we?
We are the Dippers – Nick, Lisa and our twin sons Ely and Ezra. Just a normal family really. Nick is a project manager and I’m a stay at home mum! Nick and I moved to Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire 8 years ago with a view to building our family,our home and living happily ever after.
Things weren’t quite as straightforward as we hoped.
In 2013 our first daughter was stillborn, we were devastated, But remaining optimistic we tried again and our second daughter was born on 28 February 2014, but again born asleep.Anyone who’s lost a baby will know how hard it was to go through this not just once, but twice. But we made it though that difficult time and were overjoyed in October 2015 to have twin boys, born early and nit without complications but healthy.
For a few years life was perfect and we felt so lucky watching our boys develop from premature babies into cheeky bouncy toddlers. ç
But it went badly wrong
Unfortunately on the 21st of June our world was completely shattered, Nick was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, this is a very rare cancer behind his nose in the nasopharynx area,the cancer was quite advanced at stage 3 and had spread to the bone in the base of his skull and the lymphnodes either side of his neck, he has undergone some hurrendous treatment of both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the side effects were awful, he was burnt both inside and out, he lost the ability to swallow or to produce saliva, he could barely speak, he was in absolute agony and things really weren’t too good.
The treatment had to be severe as it was our only chance to attack the tumor due to the location making it inoperable!
We were supposed to begin a 12 week recovery program to get over the side effects of the treatment, but again things weren’t quite so straightforward, he developed pneumonia and this set us back considerably, he somehow pulled the recovery off and was back home the night before the boys 3rd birthday!
On the morning of the 3rd December I woke up at 5am in absolute dispair, Nick was drowning in his own fluid I called 999 and it turned out to be one of the most harrowing scenarios ever, nick had developed sepsis, the boys had picked up a bug at nursery and nicks immune system wasn’t strong enough to cope, he had multiple organ failure, his kidneys were shutting down which meant he was overdosing on morphine as the body wasn’t processing it, both lungs collapsed his blood pressure was kept going with adrenaline he he was transferred to oxford critical care for specialist Cardiothoracic surgery where he had two blood clots on the right lung, an emergency operation was carried out bedside with me holding his hand, I could go on but I’m sure you get the jist.
In January we were elated to find out the initial cancer had gone! It worked! The ordeal was worth it! And nick was going from strength to strength, Albeit short lived! On the 28th February what should have been our second daughters 5th birthday we recieved the devastating news that the cancer had spread, to 5 bones nicks liver and his left lung!
The oncologist wanted to try immunotherapy.
However there was a flaw in the initial plan that we were offered, the lisence for immunotherapy for head and neck cancer finishes at the oropharynx (mouth) not the nose, this is because the cancer nick has is so rare there wasn’t even enough people to complete the trials when the drug was been tested, the lisence was granted omitting the nasopharynx so it is not currently available on the nhs .
It therefore has to be self funded.
If anyone can help us we’d be so grateful, we just don’t have that sort of money and Nick has been unable to work since he was diagnosed.
The initial phase will cost £40,000 and we will know then if it’s going to work. If it does it will cost another £100,000to complete the treatment.
Anyone who has sons will know how much they love and need their daddy. And I can’t bear the thought of bringing up my boys alone and being without Nick, after everything we’ve been through.
I want to thank anyone from the bottom of my heart on behalf of Nick, myself and our little boys for any donations.
❤️ https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/teamdipper
https://www.gofundme.com/team-dipper-needs-you
http://www.paypal.me/teamdipper
Photo: https://www.examinerlive.co.uk
