#MakingMemories for Terminally ill Tom

Tom came to our attention early in 2015 and we were pleased to with our #MakingMemories and were involved in his family birthday celebrations, we also stepped in with our  #GeoffBatesFund to replace their washing machine.

So when we heard of Toms wish to meet his beloved Manchester United we did not hesitate to contact the team at Old Trafford, who were fantastic with us from the off and organised this once in a lifetime day for Tom and his family.

Tom, 28, has a rare form of cancer and doctors say there are no longer any treatments available.

Terminally ill fan Tom Cooper on his surprise visit to meet the United squad

Manchester United stars helped a terminally ill dad fulfil one of his dying wishes by spending an afternoon with him and his family.

Lifelong Reds fan Tom Cooper was greeted by the sight of his young daughter doing snow angels with midfielder Michael Carrick.

Tom, 28, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer four years ago which doctors say is incurable.

And among the ‘bucket list’ of things he wanted to do before his passing was to meet his Red heroes.

After hearing his story, club bosses invited them to their Carrington training ground to meet some of the first-team squad.

It was part of the club’s Christmas programme in which they provide festive surprises to fans.

Tom and his wife Tammy and daughters Tienna, eight and Zaini, five, were invited to be part of the photo-shoot for the club’s official Christmas card and got the chance to meet the squad.

Carrick presented Tom with a shirt, signed by the entire squad, and he then stayed behind to have a kick-about with the young girls and even made ‘snow angels’ in the grass with them.

Carrick tweeted afterwards: “Lovely to meet you all today, Hope you had a nice time. Not many people would get me to do that. Best wishes. MC”

Tom, 28, from Burnley, was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a cancer which starts behind the nose where it meets the throat, in October 2011 and later found out it had spread to other areas of his body.

 

Terminally ill fan Tom Cooper on his surprise visit to meet the Manchester United squad, with his wife, daughter, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ashley Young and Michael Carrick

 

He said after the surprise visit: “Today has been a fantastic day.

“I didn’t know where we were going and then I saw the Manchester United sign and thought ‘Oh my God!’

“We came in and all of a sudden I heard someone say the first-team were here, they came and had some photos with me and my family, just one-on-one and it meant a lot.

“I’ve always wanted to meet the whole team.

“It was amazing and I’ve enjoyed the full day.

“Michael Carrick even had a play with my daughter and they were making snow angels on the grass.

 

Terminally ill fan Tom Cooper’s daughters with Michael Carrick on his surprise visit to meet the United squad

 

“I’m so glad he took the time out to play with them.

“I will cherish and remember this day, and it’s something the kids will when they’re older.”

His wife Tammy said: “(Tom) suffers every day, he has a lot of pain, a lot of tiredness and drowsiness, it’s not nice to see and obviously our two daughters have got to be around it all the time too and it’s hard for them, they’re only five and eight.

“So I know that today, making memories with me and the girls, with the team that he loves, I know he’ll be happy.”

 

Source: Manchester Evening News

Help Us Win The Starbucks #RedCupCheer campaign

Starbucks are running a brilliant campaign called the #RedCupCheer campaign. The campaign will be exclusively on Twitter and we need YOU to help us with retweeting us tweeting us and Starbucks using the #RedCupCheer hashtag.

Starbucks will be monitoring all of the charities activity and the ones with the most will be awarded £500-£1000

So from the 16th November until the 6th December we need you to tweet like mad mentioning us, Starbucks and using the hashtag

Thank you

The Affects of Cancer Go On Well After Treatment

The message has been clear for some time: cancer treatments are improving and people are living longer. This is undoubtedly a ray of hope at a time when the NHS remains under such strain. Cancer need no longer be a death sentence. But is a longer survival where the role of the NHS ends? For many of the patients I work with as a clinical psychologist, surviving illness and treatment is just one step of an arduous journey, and our services are struggling to support people sufficiently.

As services creak under the economic challenges, I wonder how I will manage to provide therapy to the young woman whose soft-tissue sarcoma treatment will require the amputation of her arm and who will find she can barely leave her home because she anxiety that people are talking about her. How will I support the man whose laryngectomy is a daily reminder of his life as an opera singer, now lost, and for which he is still grieving? If they wanted an appointment right now I might be able to slip them in under the radar of service protocol — as “survivors” their treatment was too long ago to meet our usual criteria. But will I still be able to stretch the service I currently provide as that population increases. Treatments are usually faster and efective while doing and adequate diet, check the latest supplements and vitamins reviews at Spark healthmd.

The release of a report by the Independent Cancer Taskforce, outlined recommendations for cancer strategy in England for the next five years. Understandably, the press has focused on the headline-grabbing 30,000 lives that will be saved each year. While the report is to be commended for its drive to improve cancer care, it has stirred up in me a concern I have had for some time about the care we provide to those who do survive. Even though the strategy goes some way to exploring the quality of life for patients, the report’s appreciation of the long-term psychological impact of surviving cancer is lacking.

An individual facing cancer often has to make significant adjustments to family life during treatment, and experiences challenges not only to their role but to their sense of self. Relationships and identity can be tested by what the cancer takes and the treatment leaves behind, whether that be sexual dysfunction or feeling less of a man/woman/partner, having been ravaged by the side-effects. Some are left with lasting physical changes and symptoms resulting from debilitating illness or gruelling intervention that might impact on whether they can still work, play sport, or even eat solid food. They may have to adjust to changes in their body and appearance, and contend on a day-to-day basis with the challenging reactions of others. Psychological challenges remain, and support and resources need to be available to address them.

Some find themselves grieving the loss of who they were and who they had hoped to become. Others feel more vulnerable than ever to the world’s dangers having faced their mortality. Unable to move forward in the way those around them expect, many live their lives fearful cancer will return or paralysed by a sense of ‘what next?’ One study showed that serious psychosocial distress was seen 40% more often among those who survive cancer than in those who had never had cancer. A Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor suffering from depression two years after treatment is quoted in a report: “I have honestly been to hell and back. It is after your treatment that you need care. I feel totally alone.” Now there are many different ways of approach in the medical community, like the use of salesforce sales cloud, the healthcare industry-specific solution that provides a mixture of clinical and relationship management capabilities to provide both patient tracking and patient outreach functions.

Getting rid of the cancer is simply not enough to allow us to claim we have provided cancer care. Our patients’ experience matters and we must ensure we assist them in regrouping both physically and psychologically at the end of their treatment. Only then will we truly be able to say that those 30,000 survivors are really living.

Source : The Guardian

Tumour DNA test ‘can track real-time cancer progress

A blood test that looks at DNA shed by tumours can be used to track the real-time progress of cancer, a study has shown.

Scientists evaluated the test by comparing it with analysis of biopsy samples taken from a breast cancer patient over three years.

The results showed that the DNA in the blood samples matched that from the biopsies, revealing the same patterns of genetic changes.

“The findings could change the way we monitor patients, and may be especially important for people with cancers that are difficult to reach, as taking a biopsy can sometimes be quite an invasive procedure.

“We were able to use the blood tests to map out the disease as it progressed. We now need to see if this works in more patients and other cancer types, but this is an exciting first step.”

The patient in the study had breast cancer that had already spread to a number of other organs.

By studying her tumour DNA, the scientists were able to distinguish between different secondary cancers and track how well they were responding to treatment.

 

Source: Yahoo News

BBC George Alagiah is BACK After Cancer Battle

Newsreader George Alagiah has said he is clear of cancer and ready to “get back on air” after his chemotherapy treatment was a success.

The presenter of BBC One’s News at Six and GMT on BBC World News was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which had spread to his liver and lymph nodes, last April.

Alagiah, 58, told the Daily Mail, “I’m feeling really good. I have more energy every day, and feel stronger.”

He will return to the News at Six on Tuesday, the BBC confirmed.

The Sri Lanka-born journalist said it was “wonderful” to be getting back to work, but added that he would “take it easy at first”.

“All I can say is right now I don’t have cancer, but my life from now on will be punctuated by scans every three months,” he said.

“And if somebody tells me I’m finally cured, it’s likely to be years away.”

‘Hammer blow’

Alagiah said the support from viewers had been “incredible” and that he wanted to get back on air “for my audience”.

“I received hundreds of letters from viewers while I was ill, in which they talked as if we knew each other,” he said.

Bowel cancer is the third most common type of cancer in men, behind prostate and lung and Alagiah had been diagnosed as ‘Stage Four’ – the most advanced.

His treatment involved two rounds of chemotherapy and several operations.

“When the oncologist was looking at my scan, he kept gently shaking his head, and every time he did it was like a hammer blow,” revealed Alagiah.

“They described my condition as ‘serious’, and I knew it was as bad as it gets.”

Alagiah first joined the BBC in 1989 after working as a print journalist and spent many years as one of the BBC’s leading foreign correspondents before moving to presenting.

He reported on events such as the genocide in Rwanda and the conflict in Kosovo and was made an OBE in 2008’s New Year Honours.

 

 

Source: BBC News

David’s Story

On the 27th May my life was changed massively with the arrival of my twin boys. They were born prematurely and due to the pressures on NICU in our local area they were separated for 4 days on different hospitals. On the 2nd June they were brought back together and I cannot tell you the joy I had. Later that night this joy turned to despair when, I still don’t know why I did it but I checked myself. And yes I detected something different. I quickly phoned my doctor the next day and the motions were set in place.

 

Luckily I caught it early and so after having the testicle removed and a CT scan I discovered it was all ok (we’ll ignore a bronchioscopy as all that confirmed is that I am a freak, that many of my friends will tell you they could have confirmed without a bronchioscopy). I was incredibly lucky and it hadn’t spread and so I have only had to go through 1 cycle of chemotherapy. Yes it’s a pain but I have been able to spend more time with my boys than I otherwise would have been.

 

It’s also been quite emotional as I am tired a lot and so am not able to be the Daddy I’d love to be but I still manage to look after them and tire myself out (don’t tell my consultant or nurses though!!). But I had a massively receding hairline and I will for some period at least have a thicker head of hair which is a massive positive for me! And I have had time with my boys, it’s not all negative!

 

I want to use the emotion of my story to make men check. It’s been amazing to discover some men still don’t know that you can detect it yourself early. I can’t describe how it felt, it just wasn’t normal!

 

Please help me do what I want to do. It’s not about me, it’s about others! I want to turn this negative into something incredibly positive.

 

Best Wishes,

 

David=