18-year-old’s tragic plea to live
Paige Simpson’s life changed suddenly after being rushed to the hospital on her 18th birthday.
The healthy, happy teen was told she had Brain Stem Glioma — a cancerous tumour mostly found to impact children and young adults under the age of 20.
While Ms Simpson was meant to undergo a “straightforward” operation in November last year to remove the tumour, the family ended up having to deal with the most “terrifying” seven hours of their lives.
“The tumour was wrapped around nerves going into her brain, making it extremely complicated and difficult,” Brisbane mum Carloyn Cross explained to news.com.au.
“We thought that was scary, but that was just the beginning.”
Carloyn said her daughter realised something was wrong when she felt as though one side of her face was “falling off”.
“The following week it just got worse so I took her to the doctor.”
Their local doctor ruled that Paige simply had Bell’s palsy, which is a muscle weakness that causes one half of the face to droop.
Carolyn couldn’t be convinced however, especially when Paige’s face began to get worse.
“I took her back to the doctor, he referred us to a neurosurgeon and after we got the results of an MRI, that’s when he called saying we need to go to the hospital straight away for the biopsy,” she said.
“We all cried so much when we found out what was happening, but Paige has been remarkably resilient.”
Paige has since undergone 12 weeks of both radiation therapy and oral chemotherapy – but sadly her efforts have been in vain as neither treatment has been successful in reducing the glioma.
Avastin – a tumour-starving therapy – works to reduce the size of the tumour and involves Paige being hooked to a drip every two weeks for 1.5 hours.
“This worked in reducing the size of the glioma, but, the glioma has also started fragmenting and is now in her spinal fluid, accumulating in her spine and the skin of her brain,” Carolyn explained.
Sadly enough, the family have just received the “awful” news that the next treatment doctors want to try is not on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in Australia.
Each injection costs $6000 a fortnight.
“If she doesn’t get the injections (an immunotherapy called Keytruda) those little fragments will become bigger and they’re all throughout her spine and skin of her brain,” the heartbroken mother admitted.
“She won’t be with us for a long time if we don't get them.
“Of course we want to do everything we can to keep her alive, her life is only just getting to the good part, but the Australian Government doesn’t provide any financial benefit until we’ve contributed $70,000,” Carolyn said.
Carloyn has started a GoFundMe page to help cover the debilitating costs.
“We have already exhausted our savings and I never wanted to do crowd funding and have people feeling sorry for us, especially because Paige just wants to remain so positive,” Carolyn said.
“But it’s got to a point where we can’t do it ourselves anymore and really did need help.”
The family is hoping to raise $80,000.
Carolyn said any donation is gratefully accepted, “so that we can hit our target and keep our beautiful Paige with us”.
Images: Supplied