Esther Allen, 43, has stage-4 melanoma and her only hope is new cellular immunotherapy TIL (tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte) where your own immune cells are multiplied in a lab then inserted back to attack the cancer.
She told us: “It’s obviously not ideal because of the conflict with Gaza and the Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel there.
“But when your life is at risk you’ll risk anything. As soon as they give me the go-ahead I want to be on the plane. I’d like to be there in the next week. I can’t believe I need to go to a warzone to save my life but it’s my only option.”
Esther, from Dronfield, Derbyshire, was just 15 when she first went to her GP with an odd mole on her temple but it was misdiagnosed as non-cancerous, and it was years later 2005 before she learned the truth.
Sadly, the cancer then progressed, and in 2009 after giving birth to now 14 year-old daughter Heidi that she and husband Chris, 44, were told her melanoma was stage 4 and the prognosis was “very bleak”.
In the years since, Esther’s had 20 operations to remove tumours, including from her lung, gallbladder, pancreas, chest and neck – as well as chemotherapy and then immunotherapy – but none of these options are working now.
Said Esther: “My body has worked really, really well in fighting it over the years, and for a long time doctors were able to surgically remove the tumours. But for the last two years I’ve been on drug treatment.
“The Christie Hospital in Manchester used to offer the TIL treatment through private healthcare but they stopped doing that around 2016, which was a huge disappointment.
“That was our beacon of hope. Now I need it and it’s not available here anymore.”
Esther’s mother Jane Henderson, 69, is planning to travel to Tel Aviv with her daughter having dedicated much of her life to searching for treatment options.
Jane said: “It’s been a mission since 2005 and it speeded up in 2010 when a routine scan showed Esther had tumours in her lungs.
“At the beginning the chances of survival were pretty grim and there was nothing online –we were looking at Grey’s Anatomy Books to see what a neck dissection looked like!
“Trials have become our option because we’ve exhausted all the treatments now. TIL has a 25 per cent chance of cure, which are pretty good odds.
“We need to raise enough money to pay for the first stage and then just keep raising it. We need to raise it quickly, because the tumours are growing, and the immunotherapy, which we’re still on, doesn’t seem to be working.”
The family launched a GoFundMe appeal earlier this month and more than £19,000 has already been donated.
Friends and family members are also organising fundraising events and Heidi, has designed her own £15 tote bags to help – bearing the slogan ‘There is Always Hope’ are on sale though website Love and Unique.
Esther added: “It’s fantastic. But we still have a long way to go.”
