An oncology nurse forced to crowdfund to pay for a drug to prolong her life starts treatment today after raising double her original target.
Laura Harris, 42, who was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer last January, reached the £40,000 mark within 24 hours of her plight going public.
Kind-hearted strangers continued to donate and now she has raised £81,000 towards a drug called Bevacizumab, also known as Avastin.
The 42-year-old, who has devoted her life to helping cancer patients in the NHS, believes the drug may offer her some more time to spend with her two children.
The drug Bevacizumab is not available on the NHS but thanks to the generosity of strangers it will be given to Laura alongside her standard chemotherapy today.
Laura Harris, 42, who was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer last January, reached the £40,000 mark within 24 hours of her plight going public (pictured with her husband, Paul)
Kind-hearted strangers continued to donate and now she has raised £81,000 towards a drug called Bevacizumab, also known as Avastin (pictured with Paul)
Mrs Harris, 42, has devoted her life to helping cancer patients in the NHS but has been told there is no treatment available for her disease
Mrs Harris, whose story was told in The Daily Mail last week, said: ‘I just want to say thank you to everyone who has donated. I am completely and utterly overwhelmed.
‘My husband and the kids and I, my mum as well, have been sat speechless all weekend kind of looking at each other and smiling and thinking “how have we come to deserve such generosity from so many people?”
‘So many of you I will never meet and yet I am so eternally grateful for your generosity and your time.
‘I don’t sleep very well at the minute and I was up in the middle of the night reading all the comments people have made when they made their donations and it really warmed my heart and helped me go back to sleep with a smile on my face and feel like I’ve got this giant team around us.’
Mrs Harris, from Barnstaple, Devon, is a mother to 16-year-old Noah and 13-year-old Molly, and a step-mother to Zach, seven.
She added: ‘I am now prepping for my first day on the new treatment and chemotherapy, it’s going to be a long day and we’re in at 10am to the unit to have treatment and shouldn’t finish until probably about 5pm.
The mother-of-two was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer last year and given just three months to live (pictured: the side effects of chemotherapy on her skin)
Despite her illness, she stunned colleagues by returning to her work as a specialist oncology nurse at the North Devon District Hospital to carry on caring for other cancer patients (pictured receiving treatment at hospital)
Mrs Harris believes a new drug named Bevacizumab may offer her some more time, but only if she can urgently raise £40,000 for two rounds of treatment
‘I am quite tired feeling a little bit sick so am taking all pain meds and resting with a hot water bottle.
‘Just to say thank you again to everybody we’ll update you soon as we know how everything is working.
‘As soon as I’ve got through a month of treatment we’ll be scanning and hopefully find out it’s been working, fingers crossed.
‘So keep the good wishes coming if you can please, I’ll be thinking and sending them all back to you.’
Mrs Harris, who came to the UK 20 years ago from the US before qualifying as an oncology nurse in 2006, was given just three months to live when she was diagnosed last year – but has defied all medical expectations.
Despite her illness, she stunned colleagues by returning to her work as a specialist oncology nurse at the North Devon District Hospital.
Mrs Harris, of Barnstaple, Devon, said last week: ‘As an oncology nurse, I’m only too aware of what I’m up against, but I’m not finished on this earth just yet’
Trials have shown that Bevacizumab, also known by its brand name Avastin, can stop the progression of the cancer for an average of three months.
As an oncology nurse, I’m only too aware of what I’m up against, but I’m not finished on this earth just yet
In some bowel cancer cases, the drug has prolonged life expectancy by as much as three years.
Each block of the treatment costs £21,000 and Mrs Harris initially hoped to raise enough for two. She can now afford four.
Bevacizumab targets a cancer cell protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
The drug blocks this protein and stops the cancer from growing blood vessels, so it is starved and can’t grow.
Mrs Harris has a husband Paul, two children and a step-son, and is also continuing to act as a carer for her elderly mother (pictured on their wedding day)
Mrs Harris said: ‘I still feel I have so much more to give and I hope this treatment will buy me some extra time with my family’
Patients usually have Bevacizumab (Avastin) every two to three weeks and treatment continues for as long as it controls your cancer.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) doesn’t recommend the use of the drug on the NHS in England and Wales.
Avastin, made by pharmaceutical firm Roche, was previously available on the Cancer Drugs Fund before it was cut in 2015.
Mrs Harris said that although she recognises the NHS is not a ‘bottomless pit’ of money she felt any treatment that could help her create more memories to help carry her children through life should be supported and was priceless to her.
She added: ‘The hardest part of my diagnosis was the realisation I would not be around for much longer. I am terrified of dying.
‘I wish I was someone who had come to peace with that fact but I have not come to peace with anything and am so scared of death.
‘I have had huge support from everyone and the family unit is strong. There is always someone with me. It is difficult with the kids.
Mrs Harris, who was born in Maryland, US, added: ‘I want to thank everyone who has donated and everyone who is working so hard to raise money’. The money will go towards funding bevacizumab targets a cancer cell protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
Patients usually have Bevacizumab (Avastin) every two to three weeks and treatment continues for as long as it controls your cancer
‘They are of an age where you cannot hide things and we have been very honest with them throughout.’
Mrs Harris, who is also caring for her elderly mother, continued: ‘We have enough money for the initial set of cycles and if I respond well there is no need for me to stop having the drug.
‘I am so hopeful now. I have read about people who have still been alive on it a year later.
‘It is different for every person but going in my favour the cancer has not in my liver – if I respond well I could potentially stay alive for a lot longer – if I don’t, I don’t have a huge amount of time left.
‘I would love all drugs to be available on the NHS but it is not a bottomless pit of money. NICE have a thankless task deciding what is worthy of funding.
‘Of course I think it should be funded, for me and my family extending my life by weeks, months or years has no price tag.’
Kind-hearted strangers have so far raised £81,000 for Mrs Harris, with a flood of donations since her story went viral last week
Mrs Harris revealed on Facebook earlier this month that her brother and his partner flew over from the US to visit her while she recovered from her fractured leg (pictured in hospital)
Mrs Harris, who is also caring for her elderly mother, continued: ‘We have enough money for the initial set of cycles and if I respond well there is no need for me to stop having the drug’
Mrs Harris, from Barnstaple, Devon, is a mother to 16-year-old Noah and 13-year-old Molly (pictured together), and a step-mother to Zach, seven
Husband Paul Harris, who brought forward their wedding to May last year in light of Laura’s terminal diagnosis, added: ‘We are extremely grateful and cannot believe how kind and generous people have been’
Mrs Harris added: ‘It is terminal and there is no cure for it unfortunately – there is no reversing it as the cancer has got a strong grip on her and we are not able to change that’ (pictured with work colleagues on her wedding day)
Husband Paul Harris brought forward their wedding to May last year in light of Laura’s terminal diagnosis. They got married in their back garden.
He said: ‘We are extremely grateful and cannot believe how kind and generous people have been. It has absolutely blown us both away.
‘The consultant has told there is not a limit to the number of doses that you can have.
‘Because of that and how amazingly generous people have been we will continue to fundraise for more than the two blocks we now have the money for.
‘This is about giving her more time. It is terminal and there is no cure for it unfortunately – there is no reversing it as the cancer has got a strong grip on her and we are not able to change that.
‘But the drug can extend her life. It might be weeks, it might be a few months but when you look at it in pounds versus time spent with family it is priceless.’
To donate to Mrs Harris’ appeal, please visit her GoFundMe page here.
In a heart-wrenching Facebook post on March 7, she said: ‘I’m a now touch anaemic and having to go in for a blood transfusion in order to boost me up in time to have more chemo’
She admitted that pain ‘unfortunately continues to be a huge issue’. But Mrs Harris is hopeful she will be able to tick off the biggest item on her bucket list – making her final pilgrimage home to the US
Scores of comments have been left on the fundraising page, with some branding her an ‘inspiration’ while others have said she sounds ‘wonderful’
Mrs Harris made another poignant Facebook update in February to update her followers, friends and family about the progress of her cancer
Mrs Harris, who was born in Maryland, US, added: ‘I want to thank everyone who has donated and everyone who is working so hard to raise money’