A woman in Cardiff is crowdfunding for drugs that will lengthen her sister’s life.
Carolyn Gammon, 43, [pictured above right] is a mum-of-two from Port Talbot that was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer during pregnancy and is now fighting for a way to extend her time with her children.
Her sister Kelly Davies, who lives in Cardiff, set up a Justgiving page to raise money towards a goal of £150,000 which will pay for her sister’s cancer treatment.
The life-extending drug Carolyn needs is called Kadcyla. It’s funded by the NHS in England but not Wales.
Carolyn says it could be “the difference between [her children] remembering their mother or not”.
She says: “Some women have been kept alive with the drug for 7-8 years. It will mean extra time with my children…It means everything.
“Whilst I completely understand it costs millions to develop these drugs, it seems ridiculous that when they are proven to be effective…the cost of them is prohibitive in getting them to the people that need them.”
Her sister Kelly is running 32 miles to raise money for the family cause and says she’s “absolutely confident” they’ll reach their goal.
However, she says fundraising in this way has “really taken its toll” on Carolyn.
She added: “It’s something Carolyn hasn’t opened up about…She’s had a lot of anxiety and stress. It’s turned into a full-time job…She’s doing more than she should be doing”.
This comes during news that more people than ever are crowdfunding for their cancer treatment.
The latest Justgiving figures seen by BBC Radio 5 Live show the number of people fundraising on the site for private treatment increased seven-fold from 2015 to 2016.
£4.5 million was raised for treatment not available on the NHS in 2016 in comparison to £530,000 in 2015.
Justgiving charges a small fee for every campaign they host on their site. They say this is “re-invested into building innovative new tools to make giving better for everyone.”
