Edinburgh woman diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her early 30s launches fundraiser for life-changing treatment
An Edinburgh woman who is living with terminal cancer has launched a fundraiser to help pay for treatment which could save her life.
Ciara O' Brien was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in early 2020, after she alerted her doctor to a lump on her breast in late 2019. The Inverleith resident said doctors ‘knew straight away’ that it was cancer.
Ciara, who married the love of her life in the summer, is now fundraising to pay for alternative treatments which she said have seen many other women live longer with or recover from the disease - including author Jane McLelland who was diagnosed with stage four cancer 25 years ago.
Ciara said: “Traditional treatments like Chemotherapy can help, but if you have a stage four diagnosis it is classified as terminal, so even if it helps for a while, it's not really going to help in long term.”
The fundraiser will help her pay for future sessions with a former NHS nurse and intergrative oncologist, with treatments including a combination of off-label drugs and supplements, high dose IV vitamin C, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and ozone therapy.
The 37-year-old said: “Alternative treatments might not necessarily get rid of your cancer but a lot of people are living a lot longer when they treat cancer in this way so that's what I'm doing now.
“From joining groups and speaking to cancer survivors I am seeing that these treatments have the most promise and a lot of people have the same story as me. But unfortunately these treatments are expensive and I simply wouldn't be able to afford it without help.”
After launching a crowdfunder two months ago, Ciara has raised half of the £13,000 she needs to cover the costs of her treatment. Most of the money has been donated by her friends, family and residents from Moycullen in Ireland, where she grew up.
She said: “It’s unbelievable. I am really taken aback to be honest because everybody has been so generous and it has been very humbling.”
But Ciara, who attended her first session with a specialist oncologist in September, said she was initially hesitant to launch the GoFundMe page.
She said: “As soon as I got diagnosed I kept everything very private. I didn’t want to be seen as ‘the cancer patient’ because it's such a personal thing and when you're going through it yourself you just don't want to be seen differently.
“But making the news public felt like a big emotional shift that I had to make and it’s actually it's been a very positive thing. I've gotten such a good reaction and it hasn't been as upsetting or nerve-racking as I thought it would.”
You can donate to Ciara’s fundraiser by visiting the GoFundMe website.