'I am literally begging': Yorkshire husband's desperate plea as money for wife's cancer treatment runs out

A Yorkshire mother's potentially life-saving cancer treatment could be halted within days unless a desperate plea for further donations is answered.
Sally Major, who is undergoing cancer treatment in Germany, pictured with her family.Sally Major, who is undergoing cancer treatment in Germany, pictured with her family.
Sally Major, who is undergoing cancer treatment in Germany, pictured with her family.

Sally Major was warned by doctors in the UK that her advanced bowel cancer was incurable, but she was determined to undergo cutting edge immunotherapy.

The mother-of-four has already had two spells at a clinic in Germany, which offers immunotherapy drugs not available through the NHS.

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It has meant her family remortgaging their home in Silsden, near Keighley, and selling their car to pay for the treatment.

Almost £32,000 has also been donated by more than 1,800 people who responded to a fundraising appeal on the YouCaring crowdfunding website at the start of the year.

But just as a third stint at the Hallwang Clinic near Stuttgart began to produce encouraging results, the funds for further treatment have run dry.

In an update posted on the family’s donation page, husband Liam Major wrote: “Unfortunately this week has cost us 26,000 euros – 15,000 euros more than anticipated and our money has finally run out. Unless we get at least 10,000 euros together by Thursday we will quite literally have nowhere to go.

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“Sally can barely stand for a second, has lost all muscle mass and we’re not able to get her home. Equally we can’t afford to stay here so have no option.

“I am literally begging. I can’t let my wife and amazing mum of my kids deteriorate, suffer and ultimately pass while knowing there’s treatment available that works.”

Treatment in Germany could save life of Yorkshire mother with ‘incurable’ cancer

Mrs Major, 33, had been suffering symptoms and visiting her GP for four years before she was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer in May 2015.

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She had emergency surgery and underwent 20 cycles of chemotherapy to treat the disease, which by then had spread to other parts of her body.

After having other, self-funded, treatment in the UK and researching the various options, the family found out about the treatment being offered at the Hallwang Clinic.

It uses medication which can reset the immune system to attack cancerous cells.

Since Mrs Major resumed her treatment there earlier this month, 31-year-old Mr Major said there had been “some pretty amazing results”.

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He said: “Sally’s tumour markers have almost halved, liver function doubled, kidney function normal, usual bloods pretty normal and LDH (dead cell processing) went insane and has started to come back down – all signs that the treatment is definitely working.”

Mr Major went on to say the family could potentially sell their home but would not be able to do so quickly enough and had already amassed significant debts.

He described the NHS’s refusal to offer the treatment as “criminal, devastating and unbelievable, almost barbaric”.

“We are desperately working with our MP to change this but we don’t have the beauty of time to wait,” Mr Major added.

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“We’ve drained our personal finances, maxed our credit, sold car, remortgaged, business currently £12,000 overdrawn. We have no more options for money, nothing, done. I have never been so desperate so quickly, please I beg anything anyone can give.”

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