£97,000! Mend our Mum update

I detail a full report for your interest on the state of play with regard to Berni and her family and of the desire to raise the funds that were targeted by Teri and Hannah way back in July last year.

To go back in time to paint the picture as it developed, we must return to February 2014. Berni went to the doctors, complaining of pain in her belly. By the time the cancer was diagnosed, it was Stage 4 gall bladder cancer and as such beyond that for which the NHS could offer treatment other than chemotherapy. And came the news that she may not have long to live.

That prompted Teri and Hannah to try to give longer life to Berni and the website 'Mend our Mum' was launched with a target of £100,000 as it was said that a drug in the USA could possibly cure her. This drug was not given by the NHS.

So the weeks marched by and the chemotherapy continued, with all the side effects that such treatment has. Then we arrived in late October with the fund now around £30,000.

DVD

The plan of a DVD for her was born after a conversation by Tim Lawton and myself. To get this underway was a walk into the dark as none of us had ever done such a thing before.

So Alisdair McKenzie, John Gunstone, Pete Marshall, Ian Haughey and myself of the Audlem Music Festival Committee rolled up our sleeves and got on with a massive task over four weeks of capturing as many of the community in the DVD .

Amazing Grace" was the song chosen – written back in the 1760's – and slightly up-tempoed. As you will recall we launched in early December with much coverage by the media. The BBC, ITV, Radio Stoke, Radio Shropshire, Canadian National News, BBC Europe, and countries such as Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand, Spain etc all came on board.

A tremendous example of a fantastic community spirit pulling together for a very noble cause.

Treatment today

Now, today, 5th February, Berni is in Princess Grace Hospital, London, as her surgeon, Charles Imber, operates to remove the cancerous tissue on her navel and umbilicus – a cancer called 'Sister Mary Joseph's Nodule' which appears to affect very few people and indicative of a cancer within the abdomen.

Quite appropriate is the name of the hospital, given the 'Amazing Grace' DVD.

The Fund

I can report that, given the planned Ceilidh in March, The Full Monty in April, Ian Haughey's hair and beard question, payment due of Auction lots and the Panto Raffle proceeds, the fund is now just under £97,000!

The target that seemed so impossible back in July is now almost there.

The donations still come in. Big and Small. And at all times, it must be remembered that it is the desire of Berni and her family that any excess funding will be used to help others in similar situations.

DVDs are still selling and again I will be banking more cash at the end of the week, thanks to Braids, Williams' and The Village Chippy.

This is written with all good wishes to Berni and her family as they enter a very serious stage of the malignant cancer. Pain is still very severe but the operation today should tell more as to the chances of the safe removal of the very cancerous gall bladder.

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