Almost £50,000 has been raised for 'gobsmacked' Wednesbury mum with brain tumour

A Wednesbury mum is ‘gobsmacked’ after over £40,000 has been raised for her cancer treatment.

Laura Owen, mother-of-two, started a six-month course of home chemotherapy on Monday, which will be supported by Oncothermia, a specialist treatment only available in London, using the donations.

Originally, Laura was dismissed by her GP six times, despite chronic migraines and fatigue, but on Monday she was able to start her first six-month treatment thanks to nearly reaching her £50,000 target.

She said: “It's been really good, to be honest. We've got a total of £50,000 for the GoFundMe. I think it's already reached £42,000 which I'm gobsmacked at.

“Obviously, all my friends have been sharing, and I've got a fundraiser event at the local pub up the road from me at the end of this month. So people have really wanted to help me, which is just amazing, really.”

The fundraiser at Laura’s local, Olton Tavern, Solihull, will follow her first month of treatment. Laura has to travel down to London to see specialist Dr. Paul Mulholland regularly, but the treatment is tiring.

“It did go okay. I would say you can't have three consecutive days because I was thinking, ‘oh, maybe I'll stay in London and do that’, but I can see why you can't, to be honest.

“I had it on Monday, and I felt really wiped out Tuesday, and then I had it yesterday, and I felt quite wiped out today. So I think it is wise, really, to leave time in between.”

The money will cover the next six months of Laura’s treatment, alongside any potential extension to the treatment which could last for a year.

If the first six months are successful, however, future recurrence with this type of cancer is inevitable and funds will be used should it return.

Before her diagnosis in June with Grade 4 Astrocytoma IDH Mutant, Laura worked at a school caring for children with severe special educational needs - and she’s still making sure her two boys, Joseph (11) and Max(8) get to enjoy some normality.

“We never expected it to raise this amount that we have already and we’ve had everyone pulling together.

“We had a Halloween party last weekend for the kids at one of my friends' houses as well. We’re just trying to keep everything as normal as we can for the children.

“We've actually got, this Saturday we're taking my oldest son to see Stranger Things at the theatre, which is an early Christmas present for him,

“And he's also going to be a mascot at Birmingham City in January for his birthday as well, so we have got a few nice things that we’re looking forward to.”

“I just want to get the word out, really. I mean, I've had a really bad experience with my GP, at the start of it all, and I think that's what followed me into wanting to make sure that the word is spread out there.

Laura reckons she had been unwell since April and went to the GP multiple times, being told repeatedly the migraines were down to stress, despite showing at least five signs of a brain tumour.

“He never, ever picked it up, even when I said ‘Do you think I should go for an MRI? Because, I'm really, really poorly. I'm really struggling.’

“It was a bit ‘You can, but you might not like what you find’ which is not great from your GP, to be honest.

“And then it eventually ended up with me taking myself to A&E because I was that poorly.

“It's only since I've researched into, brain tumours and joined The Brain Tumour Charity, that that's what happens to most people, and it just makes you feel quite sad, really,”

According to the charity, brain cancer trials have the lowest recruitment levels of all cancer clinical trials, despite 13,000 people being diagnosed with a tumour beginning in the brain each year.

“I think more training maybe needs to be done for GPs to recognise more signs and symptoms, because it's obviously such a big thing, and it's the biggest killer in under 40s, so I just think at the end of the day, more research needs to be done into it, really.”