A mum battling stage four bowel cancer says she is in a race against time – but is determined to stay alive for her young son.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Rogers, from Sturry, near Canterbury, says she wants to do all she can to beat the aggressive disease for 13-year-old Oscar and her partner, Jamie Keyes.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Rogers wants to stay alive for son Oscar and the rest of her family<\/p>\n
NHS doctors believe the 36-year-old is too weak to undergo full-strength chemotherapy, so she is pinning her hopes on private treatment she believes could save her life.<\/p>\n
It includes travelling abroad for a pioneering – but costly – procedure, so the mum-of-one has launched a desperate fundraising bid to give her the best chance of survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to stay being a mother to my son, Oscar, a partner to Jamie, and a daughter and sister to my family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve exhausted all the NHS can offer me, but there are other oncology treatments I could try, and that is my plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the treatments she hopes to access is called transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE), which directly targets tumours and is available in Germany.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Rogers with son Oscar and partner Jamie Keyes<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you can imagine, it is very expensive but also very effective in curing patients with stage four cancers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rebecca has now launched a GoFundMe page<\/a> in a bid to raise \u00a3100,000 to pay for treatment she is not currently being offered on the NHS.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the amount of money I am asking for is a lot, but this will include the TACE, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have made a list of what the money will be spent on and how much some of the treatment costs.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca, who grew up in Herne Bay and went to the local high school, is one of six siblings and previously worked as a housekeeper at the Chaucer Hotel in Canterbury.<\/p>\n She has suffered with bowel problems since she was 12 years old and had her large colon removed when she was just 14.<\/p>\n This later led to complications, and she developed a benign Desmoid intestinal tumour, which over the course of 17 years grew to the size of a football.<\/p>\n Doctors decided against removing it because of where it was located, but in May last year, Rebecca developed a serious infection in the tumour that saw her spend five months in hospital and lose five stone in weight.<\/p>\n She was discharged in October and placed on the waiting list for a full bowel transplant, but just two months later, routine tests showed she had cancer in the organ.<\/p>\n In January, she underwent surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but scans later revealed it had spread to her liver.<\/p>\n In April, doctors in Ashford told her they believed she was not strong enough for a full bout of chemotherapy as she was susceptible to another infection, so she was given a half dose.<\/p>\n Devastatingly, she was told last month that her cancer was stage four.<\/p>\n Rebecca says doctors are concerned about further infection, so she has only been offered another half-dose of chemotherapy when she finishes a course of antibiotics she is on.<\/p>\n But she believes she is strong enough to undergo a full bout and wants nothing left to chance as she bids to defeat the disease.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually feel a lot stronger than I was before the operation when I was in a wheelchair, but it seems the NHS can\u2019t offer me any more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n “So my last resort is now to go private because it\u2019s a race against time to get me the treatment I desperately need.<\/p>\nRebecca Rogers, from Sturry, with her 12-year-old son, Oscar<\/p>\n