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A mum given just six months to live is desperate to raise funds for life-extending drugs so she can see her little boys grow – as she can't get the medication on the NHS because of a 'technicality'.
Lorraine Hartley has been fighting lung and bone cancer for the last 18 months and it has now spread to her brain.
Mum to Arthur, three, and Henry, one, Lorraine was diagnosed in March 2020 when she was 26 weeks pregnant.
The 39-year-old horticulturist had been in pain for months after hurting her back picking up Arthur but was told she couldn't undergo a scan because she was expecting.
A newer drug to help her live longer is available on the NHS, but it can only be prescribed if a patient has one of the additional variants of her cancer mutation.
Her partner, David Topping, 35, said: "Lorraine's oncologist would like to move her onto the drug but can't prescribe it because of this technicality.
"It is also available as standard treatment for people who are being diagnosed now. But because she was diagnosed 18 months ago, she can't get it on the NHS."
After being taken to hospital by ambulance when she was expecting Henry, Lorraine was eventually given a scan which revealed one of her vertebrae had shattered.
Doctors discovered it had been weakened by cancerous lesions on her spine which were also found in her lungs, ribs and lymph nodes.
David added: "This was the day our lives got turned upside down."
Lorraine was admitted to hospital where it was also discovered she had Covid.
She then had to undergo an elective C-section at 30 weeks to deliver her youngest son.
Because Henry was born early, his lungs were under developed so he had to spend 10 weeks in the intensive care and high dependency wards.
Lorraine spent every day by his side, sitting with Henry for as long as she could.
It was during this time she was given the devastating news she had just two years to live.
Lorraine, who grew up in Strood, was put on a course of targeted drug therapy to fight the cancer and to help grow back the lost bone matter from her spine.
She continued on the treatment plan for the next 15 months with good results and David said they became hopeful of beating the cancer.
But in June this year, Lorraine started getting some new symptoms of numbness in her right hand which spread to her arm and then her face.
She was initially told it was a side-effect of the cancer in her spine, but later a scan revealed eight tumours around her brain. The drugs she was on are not suitable for cancer in the brain.
And the new drug, which the couple are raising money for, can only be prescribed on the NHS if a patient has one of the additional variants of her cancer mutation, or is newly diagnosed.
The couple from Halling must now raise £8,424 a month to pay for the drug privately. They were initially told it would cost around £4,000 but were told last week she will need a double dose.
David, who has given up work at Provender Nurseries in Swanley to care for Lorraine, said: "Funding pleas to the board on the NHS have been made but we are told they are very unlikely to be approved.
"Our aim is to raise enough to cover a year's supply for Lorraine.
"Although it might not save her life indefinitely it will be the best way for her to have a lot more time with her family she loves so much.
"She wants to see Arthur start school and grow into a young boy, and see Henry hit some more milestones as he grows up."
He added: "The hardest part of all of this is knowing she is going to miss out on their entire lives."
An online donation page has already raised £29,000 and David has been able to order the first month's supply of the drug so Lorraine should start treatment in the next few days.
But they need to raise £110,000 over the next year.
Lorraine, who used to work at How Green Nursery in Edenbridge, cannot walk as the cancer has now taken sensation away from her right leg.
David said her symptoms slowly get worse every day.
He added: "She is just scraping by at the moment. She is very ill. It is a very emotional time.
"The drug she was on before almost destroyed the cancer, if this drug can do the same, it is not going to cure her or bring her back, but it will give her more time."
To donate to Lorraine's fund, click here https://rb.gy/jtdx7p
