We are going to participate in endless challenges.

Aim

We want to make the rest of Maisie's life the best of her life. Maisie has an uncurable liver cancer called Fibrolamellar carcinoma.

So many of you know my daughter Maisie has fibrolamellar carcinoma of the liver with metastasis in the lungs and abdomen. 

To all those who are unsure of what Fibrolamellar carcinoma, or FLC, is, it is a rare cancer of the liver that usually grows in teens and adults under 40 years old. This type of cancer is different than other types of liver cancer because it happens in people who have healthy livers. This cancer affects 1 in 5 million people worldwide. There is currently no cure.

Maisie has undergone 12 rounds of chemotherapy which have been unsuccessful and made no difference to the growth rate of Maisie’s tumours.

We have created this page today to help us fund Maisie’s bucket list. No 18-year-old should have to live the way Maisie does with the uncertainty of how much time she has left to do the things she has always wanted to do before her condition deteriorates, whether it be weeks months or at the very luckiest a few good years.

In writing this, we are not giving up hope and are researching all forms of alternative therapies, trials in other countries or anything that will give us, as a family, and Maisie herself just that little bit of HOPE!

With the global pandemic and now the war in Ukraine alternative options in other countries has proved impossible with no current clinical trials being available.

One suggested alternative therapy being immunotherapy, which would cost around £9000 per round, although again we do not know what sort of quality of life this will give Maisie.

We want to make the rest of her life the best of her life and fulfil all her hopes and dreams – by doing trips to Disney or Lunch at Gordon Ramsays, whatever she may wish.

I hope you can find it in your hearts to help one 18 year old make the most of her time left on this earth – Maisie should be out living her best life, going to pubs and on holidays with friends – not thinking about if she has the energy or if she has a hospital appointment that day. 

Let’s make the rest of her life the best of her life and help her have as many experiences as possible, if you would like to help us fundraise or even donate an experience to Maisie, please get in touch………

Here is Maisie story in her own words:

“IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE” ... 

So as many of you know I have cancer, I was diagnosed last year. 

But what most of you don’t know is my story... so in recognition of Childhood cancer awareness month I have decided to share some of my story. 

It all started off with a doctor’s appointment to try and get something to ease my headaches I was getting at school. Thankfully my mum at that appointment had asked for my bloods to be taken to check my thyroid as I was continuously losing weight and was very skinny. My bloods came back showing something, but it wasn’t what we thought, my platelets and white blood cell counts(the cells that are used as markers for infection) were high. Thus leading us to believe I had an underlying infection. 

After months on investigations through blood work and finding nothing, they decided that they would send me for a CT scan on 4/12/20 to find out where this “little pocket of infection” may be hiding. 

On the Monday, December 7th I was unexpectedly made aware I had several aggressive cancerous tumours in my body. Which at that point I wasn’t sure whereas I was too scared to look at the doctor’s computer screen, I was absolutely petrified. I was told that they had informed Aberdeen and the doctors there wanted me to go down that very day to see the Paediatric Oncologist Consultant for a biopsy (To which I pushed until the day after as I was terrified).

I just remember feeling nothing that day. Well, nothing but fear that is. I couldn’t cry, I didn’t smile and barely engaged in conversation. Even when my mum was breaking the news to family my face didn’t shift shape. I was in total disbelief. 

Fast forward a couple of weeks, we finally got a diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Metastasis Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma (A whole mouth full, I know). 

Long story short it is a VERY RARE cancer of the LIVER, but the metastatic part means it had spread and in this case it is to my lungs and abdomen. I will go on to share facts and raise awareness for my type throughout the month. 

May I add that the doctor that is my leading consultant, Dr Fiona Herd, has been nothing short of outstanding throughout my whole entire journey, continues to be until today and I know will carry on being the superhero she is for me until the foreseeable. She’s truly amazing. 

It goes without saying that I underwent chemotherapy. I underwent IV chemo from December until April. (Pictures underneath) I was on a 3-week cycle which meant in between each chemo session it was their aim to get me home to Inverness from Aberdeen depending on how well I was but every day I wasn’t on the IV chemo I was (and still am) taking oral chemo tablets every day. 

This was by far the most difficult hurdle life has ever thrown at me, it changed me from the outside in. It not only affected me, but it heavily affected my family who I am so thankful for as they were and continue to be my support system. 

I believe the only reason I got through most of it is because of my fighting spirit and strong personality. Just because I was/am unwell doesn’t mean I have to stop smiling. 

Just because I was/am unwell doesn’t mean I stop being cheeky and joking. 

Just because the odds were stacked against me didn’t allow me to give in and stop fighting. BECAUSE THAT IS NOT WHO I AM.

I share some of my story, not for pity, but to raise awareness for childhood cancer

This project successfully funded on 17th May 2022