Real Life: Anna Radosz

Got told about Anna from a colleague of mine who took over the evening class from me last year. Wee Oscar was born when the class was on the October break, and I was off on the WHW. I got transferred to work with a November start group.

Cancer sufferer Anna Radosz could have as little as eight weeks before her body succumbs to the disease.
The only treatment available in Scotland is likely to have only a 10% chance of success.
So the 27-year-old and her partner Daniel Smajdor have embarked on a desperate race-against-time to raise money for possible life-saving treatment in the USA.
They need £10,000 for Anna to undergo pioneering genetic therapy at the world-famous Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
...

Anna had been fit and healthy all her life until she became suspicious about a mole on her arm around three years ago.
It was diagnosed as a malignant melanoma and removed.
However, last summer - when Anna was six months pregnant with Oscar - spots returned to various parts of her neck, throat and arms. Doctors at ARI broke the crushing news the melanomas had returned. They were removed, but Anna did not have chemotherapy until after the baby was born in November.
...

Then came the bombshell from doctors last month. A CT scan revealed Anna had tumours on her lungs and in her brain.
Because there were so many small growths in her brain, surgery was not an option.
Even with chemotherapy she has only about a 10% chance of surviving a year. Bravely fighting the tears, Anna said: "It could be a year. It could be six months. Maybe even less.
"There is a possible treatment at a hospital in London, but they will not take me because my condition is so advanced.
"So I went on to the internet and I've discovered this gene therapy in Boston is my only hope.
"They have said they will take me as a patient. But we have to get the money. We're determined to do it. I want to live to see my baby grow."
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Quoted from the Press and Journal, link to full story (5 Feb 07).

I only heard about this today, and am still taken aback by it.