Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer. We provide practical, medical, emotional and financial support and push for better cancer care. Cancer affects us all. We can all help. We are Macmillan Cancer Support.

We care for the whole person, not just the disease. We take into account not just the medical needs of people affected by cancer but the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have. We are there for people from the moment they suspect they have cancer, and for their families too.

We deliver our own services and work with other partners to develop new ones. Our largest partner is the NHS but there are others in the public, voluntary and private sectors of care too. We lead the way with innovative cancer care services, and work with our partners to replicate these services across the country so that they become mainstream.

The Jack Brown Appeal

The January of 2004 heralded our youngest child’s start within the same school as his elder brother and sister. We were confident of the family happily maturing within the confines of everyday stresses. But then Jack got a limp; an annoying but insignificant injury, which would disappear…

The moments before we were told that Jack had cancer, you could sense that the news was bad. Those who work within an institution dealing with the public grow a shell labelled ‘only to be shed in times of emergency’. It was just before we met our ‘appropriately trained cancer news breaker’ that we recognised the nurses’ demeanour change. The hardest news is landed with the softest of blows.

A year later and Jack has had 15 bouts of chemotherapy; two bouts of radioactive Mibg treatment and has tolerated isolation over a 3 week period; several infections; a 4 hour operation to remove the main tumour and many other lesser procedures under general anaesthetic. With each procedure there has been a severe toxic effect on his liver, his kidneys and his heart.

Even with chemotherapy children with stage IV neuroblastoma have a 2-year survival rate of approximately 20%.

The cost of antibody therapy which is available at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York is US $350,000.

We need to raise these funds before Jack can be given the potentially life saving therapy.