Mum-of-two battling advanced cancer appeals for help to access pioneering treatment
A young North East mother-of-two is urgently seeking to raise thousands of pounds to access pioneering cancer treatment that may buy precious time with her young family.
Amy Rainbow, 30, was first diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago and has undergone chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, radiation and targeted therapies.
Sadly, in June 2023, her world was turned upside down when doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to her brain.
Despite emergency surgery and intensive treatment, the disease progressed aggressively, and Amy now has leptomeningeal disease - a rare and devastating form of cancer that affects the brain fluid and lining - with a prognosis typically measured in months.
Amy undergoing treatment (Image: LOGIC-I)
In the last 18 months, she has endured three types of chemotherapy, 14 progressing brain tumours, two rounds of brain radiotherapy, seizures, and the physical toll of constant steroids.
Having exhausted NHS options, private treatment is now her only option.
Amy is turning to Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy, a personalised therapy that strengthens the immune system to attack cancer cells more intelligently and with fewer side effects.
The six-month programme could help slow or even halt the disease's progression.
However, in the UK, this is only privately available for a large sum of £30,000.
The Middlesbrough mum and husband Steven, a Senior Planning Consultant at Yarm-based project consultancy Logic-i, have launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds in a race against time.
Amy and Steven pictures at the Riverside when Harper and Elliot were Boro mascots in the December game against Milwall (Image: LOGIC-I)
This page was originally set with a target of £30,000. But due to an overwhelming flood of support, this target was quickly surpassed. The GoFundMe page has currently raised just over £36,000, and the target has been pushed to £55,000.
The hope is that, if her body responds well to the initial six-month program, the treatment will be extended an additional six months, with all extra proceeds brought in by the GoFundMe page going towards this.
Amy said: 'We have two beautiful children, Elliot, seven and four-year-old Harper, and I want nothing more than to spend as much time as I can watching them grow up.'
'We've faced heart-breaking news time and time again, but I'm still here,' she added.
Steven carries Amy on his shoulders during last year's Cancer Research UK – Race for Life in Stewart Park, Middlesbrough (Image: LOGIC-I)
'I've already outlived my prognosis, and we keep looking for options - for our kids if nothing else.'
Amy's husband, Steven, has received the full support of his employer, Logic-i, which has made a private donation to the family and whose team is rallying around to raise awareness of her plight.
'Amy's story is one of unimaginable strength,' said Stephen Humble, a director at Logic-i.
'She and Steven have shown extraordinary resilience and dignity throughout, and as a team, we're standing with them and asking others to do the same, whether that's through a donation or by simply sharing their story.'
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In a generous show of support, the Steel River Power management donated £5,000 to the mother's plight, the largest donation amount on Amy's GoFundMe page.
Steven currently works there, where he is helping to oversee the expansion of one of the UK's largest private wire networks.
To support Amy's treatment and read more about her journer, visit gofund.me/09455d7e
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