A cancer diagnosis is devastating no matter what the circumstances, but especially heartbreaking when it happens in a family with small children. Nicola Hitchen found herself in this nightmare situation, with two sons and a stage 2 cervical cancer diagnosis.
The 41-year-old mother, from Chester, UK, was having pain. Her doctors thought it was residual pain from an operation she had undergone.
But instead of recovering, an abscess was found of her cervix after an emergency trip to the hospital. Admitted into the intensive care unit of the hospital, Nicola didn’t expect to be there seven weeks, but the weeks went on and her cancer quickly progressed.
Finally, at stage 4 and unable to be operated on, Nicola believed she only had a few short months to live. It was after some research that she discovered a cancer treatment facility in Istanbul, Turkey, which had a high rate of success in treating stage 4 cancers. Each trip costs around £10k, and she quickly ran out of money.
Nicola faced the hard moment of telling her family she could no longer continue the treatments, even though they were working.
But someone stepped up to help Nicola find a way–her ex-husband’s wife! Clare Hitchen began a campaign to raise money to save Nicola’s life.
The CrowdFunding campaign started by Clare has already garnered over £40k, going a long way to send Nicola back to Turkey for her life-saving treatments. Said Clare of her step sons, they “need their Mum and she deserves the chance to watch them grow into men and have their own families.”
“Niki is my husband’s ex-wife and amazing Mum to Joe and Jake,” she said. “Niki continues to put them first throughout all of her treatment. Joe and Jake are also amazing big brothers to our 3 year old daughter and she adores them as they do her. We can do this!!!”
“It warms my heart that we have all united in this and your support has given Niki positivity and hope which is healing to the mind. You will never understand just how much your donation whether big or small and messages of love and encouragement have helped,” Clare wrote on the Facebook page.
