A MUM who found out she had an inoperable and aggressive brain tumour while pregnant is appealing for help after learning that there is no further treatment available on the NHS.
Laura Elizabeth Mahon, 31, from Lea Green, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumour in September 2021.
Laura and her husband, Danny first realised something was wrong when she woke up at 20 weeks pregnant and couldn’t move her toes.
Doctors originally believed the baby was pressing on a nerve but she was sent to The Walton Centre for an MRI scan – which led to the discovery of the tumour.
Laura became very unwell when she was 27 weeks pregnant.
She and her husband Danny, made the “toughest decision of their lives” and opted to bring their daughter Sienna into the world at 30 weeks.
She was told that she should not expect to outlive a year from her initial diagnosis, and has had plenty of setbacks.
However, Pride of St Helens Courage Award winner Laura wouldn’t accept that and 34 months on is still fighting, having celebrated Sienna's second birthday in November.
She had been undergoing constant chemotherapy but in January she was told that the cancer was progressing, meaning the chemotherapy had stopped working.
This left her with only one choice – to undergo a second, dangerous round of radiotherapy with a 50/50 chance of stabilising the disease.
Then following that treatment and a significant number of regular seizures, she was told the news that the tumour has progressed and is spreading over her brain. It is causing the seizures and there is no more treatment available on the NHS.
Speaking to the Star alongside Laura, her husband Danny said: “I took her to hospital after the seizures for her to have tests and sat down in the waiting room to work on my laptop and I heard all these sirens and I knew it was Laura.
“I tried to get in and someone came out and I said she’s had another seizure hasn’t she and they said yes, I went in the room and she was laying on the bed in a foetal position and then she was admitted to CDU.
“From that point her neurooncologist, who we’ve built such a rapport with, had to tell us that after three years said it’s bad news and there’s nothing left on the NHS for Laura.”
Laura said: “It’s the news I’ve been dreading and I feel really crappy about it but I’ve shared all of this from the beginning and I still plan to do that for Sienna in the future and for others going through this.”
Danny added: “There’s a number of things we are looking into that aren’t available on the NHS because we got this far, we are not giving up hope.
“But we need help to make that happen, we have a JustGiving page set up already which we’ve used the money from previously to create memories with Sienna.
"We want to reuse that page to try and raise funds for Laura to have treatment now so she’s around for longer to create even more with Sienna.”
To donate go to gofundme.com/f/laura-elizabeth-mahon-fight-with-brain-cancer
Laura documents her journey via her Instagram and TikTok accounts via @lauradowntherabbithole
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