An active Somerset mother is left paralyzed and given only six months to live after suffering a stroke and a severe brain tumor.
Mother of two Lisa Whitbread, 41, of Charlton Adam, lived a busy life including riding horses and working in her dog grooming business before suffering a massive seizure in March in which her husband Dean had to revive her.
Lisa is rushed to the hospital, where an MRI scan reveals a massive brain tumor and a disastrous terminal prognosis.
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A crowdfunding campaign to allow Lisa and her family to enjoy a Cornish beach holiday has been started by her mother Rosemary Russell and has raised over £3,000 so far.
Rosemary said: “The day they came in and said it was a brain tumor and she had six months was one of the worst days of my life.”
The nine hour operation saw Lisa rise to her feet, with 90 percent of the growth removed, and she did so well that she was allowed to go home within a week.
Then five days later, Lisa suffered a major stroke, which left her entire left side paralyzed.
Rosemary added: “Dean rushed to the hospital and called me at 3am, saying they were taking him to Yeovil Hospital. I stayed up all night waiting to hear more, and then I received a text at 11am the next day saying I needed to come to the hospital because his condition was getting worse.
“At the time, I thought he was dying. I went to Yeovil Hospital like crazy, and Dean was stressed outside the hospital, and I thought he was dead. I cupped his head in my hand and said, ‘Tell me now, tell me what happened’ he told me he was getting worse, and he needed to get some fresh air because he was exhausted.
“Thankfully, he’s fine; it was because he lost his entire left side, which is as bad as it gets. Now he is recovering slowly, and it is a long road.”
The biopsy has revealed a grade three Astrocytoma – this means that Lisa will need courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink the remaining ten percent growth – all this on top of trying to recover from the stroke.
Rosemary said: “She started radiotherapy within two weeks, and as soon as that was over, she went on chemo.
“While they can’t cure it, they are optimistic they can control it and hopefully kill it nearly to the ground. Because it is ingrained in the brain, what remains will be monitored with MRI scans every three months to see if it is growing, and possibly further surgery. Hopefully, the seizure tablets mean he won’t have seizures.
“He could have five years, ten years, or more. We don’t know.”
Since Lisa is a dog groomer and Dean is a carpenter, neither of them spend time together enjoying vacations or honeymoons.
“These two never had proper holidays. Dean always worked really hard, and Lisa qualified as a dog groomer and worked hard, and they didn’t have proper vacations,” explained Rosemary.
“Lisa adores Cornwall and its beaches and can take long walks along the beach and enjoy listening to the waves coming in. Very peacefull.
“I know money is hard for them because no one has anything to work but I feel like this would really help them, just to avoid it. It’s been months of hospitals, needles, nurses, doctors, surgeons. As fantastic as they are, they need time to rest and be themselves.
“I visited recently, and Dean has been on the phone for 80 minutes just trying to get transport for his radiotherapy. She started radiotherapy within a few weeks and had to travel to Bristol Monday to Friday every day for thirty days. That’s pretty heavy.
“Everything is just hard work. Every day is a challenge to get something done but I can’t bring the team down, they are amazing. My daughter is still here, and she is fine.”
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He continued: “I feel confident that this break for which I am fundraising will help them deal with what comes next. I would love to send them away before all the treatment starts, but the problem is he has to have radiotherapy to his head, and that means they have to put him in a mask, and he will be pinned to the table while they run the procedure.
“Her immune system will be damaged during treatment, and we will have to wait until she is mentally and physically strong enough to go. It may not happen for a few months, but the money is safe, and when they are ready to go, they will.
“My beautiful and sweet daughter is a warrior, and I am amazed by her positivity and determination to recover from this tumor and get her left side back to work.”
He added: “I am so humbled by the love shown to them, and I cry thinking about it.”
Those wishing to donate to the crowdfunding campaign can do so on GoFundMe.
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