Elliot
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated.
The response has been completely overwhelming, and with donations still coming in daily, I don't have the strength right now to reply to everyone individually.
I do intend to read every message myself when I have the energy, because each one means more to me than words can say.
Hi, my name is Elliot. I'm 35 years old, a husband, a dad of two, and I've just been told I have 12 to 18 months to live.
My wife Erica, our 5-year-old daughter Aluna, and our 1-year-old son Ocie are my entire world. And right now, I'm fighting for the chance to stay with them as long as I possibly can.
One month ago, I was a healthy 35-year-old working as a tiler, providing for my young family. Within days, I lost strength in my right arm, started dropping things, couldn't text properly. A scan revealed a 3cm tumour in the left frontal lobe of my brain.
A week later I was in emergency neurosurgery. An awake craniotomy. What followed was worse than we ever imagined: multiple seizures, a brain bleed, a second surgery, and days in the High Dependency Unit.
The diagnosis: Stage 4 Glioblastoma. The most aggressive form of brain cancer there is. Life expectancy with standard treatment: 12 to 18 months.
I'm not ready to accept that.
Why we're fighting for something more
My sister Lauren was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma at 30. Her chance of survival was 5%. She's alive today, ten years later, cancer-free, because she was one of the first patients in the UK to receive a breakthrough immunotherapy called Pembrolizumab.
The same treatment that saved her life has shown early promise for glioblastoma, but it isn't available on the NHS for my diagnosis. With private funding, I can access it in Germany, alongside a personalised cancer vaccine that teaches my immune system to hunt down the cancer cells left behind after surgery, radiotherapy, and chemo.
There are no guarantees. But some patients who received these treatments are still alive years later with no evidence of disease. I want to be one of them. I have to try.
Where every dollar goes
This is exactly what we need to fund, broken down transparently so you know where every donation goes:
Pembrolizumab (immunotherapy in Germany): $68,500
Personalised cancer vaccine programme (CeGAT / DCVax-L / IOZK): $123,300
Molecular testing, pathology review, specialist consultations: $5,500
Scans and follow-up diagnostics: $3,200
Travel to Germany (multiple trips): $2,800
Accommodation during treatment: $1,700
Total treatment cost: $205,000
Any amount raised beyond this goal will go directly to supporting Erica and the children as Elliot undergoes treatment, and to other families facing the same devastating diagnosis.
What I'm actually asking for
I'm not asking you to cure my cancer. No one can promise me that.
I'm asking for more time.
Time to watch Aluna grow into the kindest little soul I already see her becoming. Time to teach Ocie how to ride his first bike. Time to be at the school gates. Time for the birthdays, the ordinary evenings, the moments they'll remember me by. Aluna is 5. Ocie is 1. They don't understand statistics. They just want their dad to come home.
That's what your donation buys. Not a miracle. Time.
How you can help
If you can donate, even $5 helps. I mean that literally. If everyone who sees this gives just $5, we get there fast. There's no amount too small.
If you can't donate, please share. Sharing this page with one person who can is worth just as much. Every share puts my story in front of someone who might be the reason we reach the goal.
Thank you
The messages we've received have genuinely carried us through the hardest weeks of our lives. My family reads every one of them.
Thank you for reading my story, for standing beside us, and for helping me fight for time with the people I love most.
With all our love and gratitude,
Elliot, Erica, Aluna and Ocie xxx
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