A terminally ill mum in Cornwall is desperate to be able to make lasting memories with her children before it's too late. Louise Williams, 37, was initially diagnosed with breast cancer 16 months ago for which she underwent treatment.
Unfortunately she was later told that the cancer had spread to her bones and needed further treatment and surgery. However, she received a devastating phone call last week during which she was told her most recent scan showed the cancer has now spread to her brain.
Louise, who lives in Bodmin, was left shellshocked by the news and now wants to make lasting memories with her family while she is still able to. Her friend Leonie Searle has helped set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Louise and her loved ones.
READ NEXT:
Family banned from land after allegedly making threats
Disposable BBQ bin fire destroys emergency phone at beach
Leonie is not unfamiliar with her friend's plight personally, having herself been diagnosed with bowel cancer in February 2023 and undergone an intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy last year. She was later transferred to the care of Southampton hospital with the intention of operating to remove her tumour and lymph nodes.
Following her consultation and hearing the scale of the operation she needed, she started her own GoFundMe which allowed her to take her two daughters on a holiday of a lifetime to Florida for two weeks, where they visited Disney World, Universal studios, and NASA. Leonie said she wouldn’t have been able to make these memories with her daughters if it wasn’t for her fundraiser, so decided she wanted to help Louise in the same way after hearing of her diagnosis.
“[Going on holiday] seems like such a small thing but it’s a time when cancer isn’t a thing and you are just focussed on having all these positive experiences,” Leonie told CornwallLive. “Without them, my cancer journey would have been very different.
“One thing I’ve learnt over the last year since being diagnosed with cancer is to always have something positive to look forward to. So I’ll try to book an evening concert, a comedy show or a festival which people around me have helped support financially.
“But what I found difficult was knowing that I was having those experiences whilst talking to Louise and she didn’t have any of that. I would send her links to websites where she could get support but she said it wasn’t financially viable for her, so I told her I would help set up a GoFundMe for her.”
Click here to join CornwallLive on WhatsApp. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
So far, the fundraiser has raised £1,160 of their £10,000 target. Leonie said Louise is looking to book a family holiday so that her five young children have memories to look back on in the future, after she's gone.
“It’s important for people to know that having a terminal diagnosis doesn’t mean your life is over there and then,” Leonie said. “What you need to do is start living and the GoFundMe pages are giving people like us the opportunity to do that whilst we can.
“For many cancer patients, especially those stage 4, they are no longer able to work because of side effects from treatment, the amount of time needed for treatment or side effects from the cancer itself. This creates such financial worries in addition to everything else that is going on.
“I believe that having days out, holidays, festivals or even an art class booked, can have such a positive impact when you are in the depths of suffering. Which is why I thought it was such a wonderful thing to be able to help Louise and give me something positive to do as a cancer patient myself.”
To donate to Louise's fundraiser, visit her GoFundMe page, here.
