Vanessa Young, Practice Manager at The Vine Medical Centre; Surrey, has raised £3,400 for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital Oncology Department.
Her husband Andy Young was diagnosed with bowel cancer in August 2012 at the age of 54, four days before his eldest son got married. He had the tumour removed but sadly it had spread to the lymph nodes. Then in February 2013 it spread to his liver and he was told without chemotherapy he had less than three months to live but with chemotherapy up to one year. Over 18 months later he is still fighting this horrible disease.
Andy has been attending the oncology department at least once a week since last February and according to Vanessa “the staff are amazing. Every single one of them, so I decided to do a fund raising event for the ward“.
Vanessa goes on to say “I organised a gig at our local pub and Andy knew the Drummer from his days when they worked together as Prison Officers. Local companies did a great job and donated lots of raffle prizes, helping us reach £3400. When I asked Julie the nurse in charge of the department what she wanted. All she said was she wanted the place to look nice for people that are coming in all the time for chemotherapy. It was agreed that the chairs in the waiting room would be replaced first and perhaps some pictures to brighten it up”.
But she’s not stopping there, Vanessa’s aim is to refurbish as much as she can and is planning another fund raising event at the end of September. You can keep in touch with Vanessa and Andy at their Facebook Page, just click this link.
(The photo is of Andy, Vanessa and their youngest son Christopher when he did a sky dive in aid of a bowel cancer charity)
