13
Apr
Harrogate woman given months to live seeks funding for private rare cancer treatment
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A Harrogate woman is hoping to raise £150,000 for life-extending treatment for a rare cancer.
Chanelle Smith, 31, was diagnosed with adenosquamous ovarian cancer in September 2024 at the age of 30.
It's extremely rare - accounting for less than 1% of ovarian cancer cases.
She has already paid £10,724 for one month of private treatment, with further cycles potentially costing over £17,000. Without it, her oncologist has given her a prognosis of less than 12 months.
On her GoFundMe page, which has already raised more than £24,000, she said:
I am so extremely hopeful and wanting for life, but time is against me, and I thank you with all my heart if you could help me raise funding for private cancer treatment to keep me alive.
Chanelle’s story
Chanelle, who lived an active lifestyle and spent lots of time in the gym, noticed something was wrong in June 2024, when she was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal and chest pains.
Initially treated for fluid build-up, repeated hospital visits over the following months revealed the issue was far more serious.
After three surgeries and chemotherapy between June and April, she was told she was cancer-free. However, the cancer returned last November, spreading to her liver and pelvic region.
With too many tumours on her liver to operate on, chemotherapy was her only option.
But after two months, she was told it had not worked and no further treatments were available at the hospital.
“I had never been so scared in my entire life,” she wrote. “My whole body went into panic. I do not want to die.”
Chanelle Smith took her fitness very seriously before her diagnosis, competing in bodybuilding bikini classes.
Chanelle began researching other options and found a case study in Hong Kong involving the same cancer.
Following discussions with her oncologist, she began a combination of paclitaxel and bevacizumab (Avastin) to try to stabilise her liver — treatment that has already cost more than £10,000 for one month.
If successful, she may be eligible for the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda), which costs £7,630 per cycle.
Chanelle said:
For me to be able to have the best chance of surviving, I need to keep having the treatment I am currently on in the hope it works and stabilises my liver, and I can start to get better with the hope that the immunotherapy or the treatment I am on now shrinks my tumours and I can start to live my life again. I would then be placed on a maintenance drug and hope this works to enable me to have a long life.
I am so extremely hopeful and wanting for life, and I would appreciate it if anyone reading this could help and donate any amount they can to help me achieve this and to survive, as all I want to do is get my life back and go back to work and do those normal things that I so wish I could do right now. I just want to live.
In the worst-case scenario, or if treatment is no longer necessary, Chanelle said that the money raised will be split between Cancer Research UK and Ovarian Cancer Action.
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