Pippa Edwards fought a Cancer she was told could not be beaten. With 6 kids to live for, the stakes were high. But with a surgery just around the corner, the Coronavirus pandemic has knocked her back and the future is uncertain...
I was running 10 km most days, as well as a business and a family. I started to get reflux and pain, along with some bowel problems, so I had a number of tests done including a laparoscopy, endoscopy, and CT scans. Unfortunately a doctor misdiagnosed me.
I continued to get sicker. Eventually I ended up going to a specialist in Sydney who performed an endoscopy again, and diagnosed me on the spot with having extremely aggressive cancer of the peritonei, which started in the stomach. I was given weeks to live.
I was sent home on pallitive care. The first thing I did was reach out to my community, as I have six children – four are still at home, and the youngest is only five, so I needed my husband and children supported by the village. They have been wonderful. It’s been very humbling to see the way the entire community has supported us with so much love.
I got on Google and found a professor who had pioneered a surgery called a perionectomy. He agreed to help me, and has done 2 rounds of hipec chemotherapy, and I’ve been having systemic chemo every fortnight. It has knocked the cancer back to an operable state now. The cancer is a marker 7, and when he first went in it was a 27, so it is somewhat of a miracle. Especially because this type of cancer really doesn’t respond well to chemo.
So here I am, at a 7, and now due to the restrictions around Coronavirus I can’t have the surgery I hoped would save my life and give me more time with my children. I just can’t believe this, having fought so hard, and finally after 8 months getting to this stage, I can’t have this surgery which means the cancer will take over.
I just can’t believe this is happening.
I have told the children no promises other than I will fight so hard to stop this cancer and I just hold them tight every day.
If you’d like to help Pippa and her family, you can visit her GoFundMe page here.