3 Nov 18

By Louise DeCelis

Hi, I'm Lou! A mum, an adventurous spirit, travel lover, family gal, lucky wife, and an unshakable optimist. In 2017, at just 39 I was diagnosed with aggressive Triple Negative Breast Cancer. After a year of treatment, my cancer had metastasized to my Liver and Rib bone, where it currently resides. After experiencing the enormous difference fitness and diet made for my recovery, general health and happiness it’s my mission to share that with women living with a cancer diagnosis, everywhere. Join me as we journey to wellness together!

Dear family and friends, the time has come for us to ask for your help.

The community that you have created around us is phenomenal. It’s nurturing, energising, committed, sympathetic, and full of an immeasurable amount of love. It’s more than we could have ever hoped for. Having this village behind us has carried us this far. And I hope the tone that’s been set for our support carries over to any family in the community that needs help in the coming years.

But today I want to talk about my family. And I want to ask for your help. Help with a fundraiser to generate the funds required to afford the treatments I need. And for my family to live comfortably with me, where ever in the world we land for treatment.

For us now the stakes couldn’t be any higher. I have aggressive metastatic Cancer moving through my body. My doctors define it as Stage four and terminal. Soon it could impair my liver function.

Terminal is just not something we will lay down and accept, however, the treatment options are limited and overseas treatment will likely hold the key. We have sought out the best international doctors and clinics who specialise in my type of cancer. We await a few more test results before we can make a call on which way we go. But the paths are very much the same. And they all come with a very high price for life.

We need to stop this cancer from spreading any further and we need to move fast. One liver lesion alone doubled in size in just 6 weeks and new lesions were detected. Terrifying.

I could live well with the current cancer in my body for many years as long as there is no growth or new lesions. However, to date we have not had that result from any of the five treatments we’ve tried.. and are now onto the sixth. We need a multi-disciplined approach to hit this abominable disease from all sides.

We are creating a huge fundraiser event with both a live and silent auction on Dec 6th @ 6pm at The Greenwood North Sydney. The auction items are flowing in and are blowing me away. We hope the night to be a big celebration of our village, a boost to our morale, and a night to remember.

So why do we need your help?

Having cancer as a mum hits you in a place so deep, so raw and so terrifying that it’s impossible to describe. What i want most is to see my babies grow up and to know they are not suffering the loss of their mum. Evie is 4, and Noah’s nearly 6. The thought of not being there for them growing up is a place i try not to imagine. I want to see what beautiful people they become.  I worry they won’t remember me. They have been through so much in the last year but still they are are so brave, always smiling, always loving, always silly. They haven’t lost their innocence to cancer yet and i hope they never have to.

My disease is currently incurable but treatable and the reality is until they find a cure, we will be forever focused on treatment and survival. They predict a cure will be found within about five years, so we’re going to fight like hell, one day at a time, for 1825 days (five years)and keep me alive.

Money is always a massive worry. Money is a big worry for most families without throwing the cost of cancer into the thought blender. Dom and i built a great business that had several years of doubling annual growth. We never missed mortgage payments, we travelled the world. However, my cancer off the back of Dom’s bike accident has completely crippled us. We’ve been in this fight for 17 months now and the truth is, if it wasn’t for family support we’d be beggars on the street. For that, we are extremely fortunate and downright lucky, however, it is not sustainable.

It’s a strange feeling of living in a beautiful suburb, in a beautiful house, with a nice car and all the trimmings that make our life easy and enjoyable. And then one day you find yourself struggling to pay bills for gas, electricity, phones, internet, childcare, clothing, petrol, tax, school and daycare. Sometimes food. It’s such an enormous fall from what we have come to be used to. And yet on the outside, we look to most like life hasn’t changed. But it has. We count our dollars and we value what we have so much more.

And what we know is that stress has a major impact on cancer growth and spread. We need to peel back all the layers of stress. By helping us financially you remove a major stressor for us.

Treatment facilities and hospitals overseas are hundreds of thousands of dollars and that is without medical issue or travel and relocation costs. The best diagnostic gene profiling and chemosensitivity tests run from $5,500 – $10,000…per test! We’ve spent $40,000+ in just the 4 mths since the metastatic diagnosis in July.

How can you help?
Buy a ticket to our Fundraiser Night Dec 6. 6pm. Greenwood. Nth Sydney
Donate an Auction prize for the fundraiser donations@louisedecelis.me
Donate directly to our family

I do want to make it really clear here that we are asking for financial assistance for our family. It is not a registered charity and the money would be gifted to us for medical treatment and support for the family.

I feel extremely lucky that we can ask for help without pride or ego getting in the way. After all, this could happen to any of us, it’s a conversation that many of us will need to have, and I hope that it makes it just that little easier now we have paved the way.

With much love and gratitude

Lou

Noah and Evie Byrne's Christening

24 Comments

  1. Lou,
    You don’t know me well, if at all, but I wanted to reach out as Evie goes to daycare with my daughter Scarlett and Evie is the most adorable and likeable soul, you must be very proud. If there is anything we can do, apart from donating which we will definitely, please reach out.
    Kris x

  2. Hi Louise
    You don’t know me. I learnt about your situation and fund raiser from a colleague at work, Sophie Aspley Davis, and it pulled at my heart strings.
    My mum died of breast cancer in 1976 when I was just 9 years old. Unfortunately, partly due to her being from a Romany family and partly due to the fact that she was so scared, she refused to have any treatment for the cancer.
    I have just made a donation and I want to wish you all the best with your next treatment. You sound like an amazing lady with an amazing family.
    Love Christine xx

  3. Sending all our love and support to you and your family. We have made a donation which we hope will help get the next round of treatment you need.
    Kind regards Caroline, Noel, Sophia and Harrison x

  4. Hi Louise,

    I don’t know you personally but please read everything you can by Dr Joe Dispenza . There are hundreds of hours of interviews given by him along with testimonies including Australians on YouTube. so easy enough for you to research his work.

    His book ‘You are the Placebo’ has changed the lives for tens of thousands of people already in similar or worse positions than you.rself.

    I am a father of two young children and your story really touched me. I don’t normally dispense opinions to anyone but felt very compelled to let you know about Dr Joe’s work. It truly is ground breaking. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

    Jason

  5. Hi Louise. My name is Rose. I am friends with Emma. I too have breast cancer. Stage 3 and aggressive and invasive. I have children, 6, 4 and 2. I was also pregnant with my 5th child l, a boy whom I had to give birth to prematurely due to the cancer. I too am in the same situation as you in my fight to survive this cancer. I have done lots of research and am very proactive in staying healthy if you ever want to chat to see if there is any information I have that maybe you have not come across yet I am available to help.

  6. Hi Louise,
    Apart from my donation, i wanted to also wish you good luck with everything and i do believe with all of my heart that you will have the chance to see your little ones growing stay strong!!
    Christina

  7. Hi Louise, sending hugs and prayers for you and your family. I remember your father being there for me when my daughter was sick with a brain tumour many years ago, i will nevwr forget.
    stay strong and fight like a girl .
    Shane, Chelsea & Rachel xoxo

  8. Hello Louise. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but from one mother to another I wish you all the very best on your journey towards regaining your health. I saw your story on the Mammia website. I hope that many people around the country, can come forward to help you and your family in whatever they can afford. Good luck with everything.

  9. Hi Louise, I too had triple negative cancer. When I was diagnosed I was Stage 2. I had a lumpectomy trailer away and chemo 3xFEC and 3x Taxotere followed by 30 radiation treatments. I thought my world had come to an end. Then my son told me, “mum you are strong and you have had a hard life so you can beat this. Don’t worry about statistics, you can beat this”. I became more determined than ever to beat this. One thing was using my mind to tell the cancer to go away. Every day I would say to myself “Go away you are not going to beat me”. Even on those chemo days when I felt nauseous I would take the dog for walk in the park. Louise, all I can say is stay strong and positive. I am 10 years on now from diagnosis. You sound like a very determined mum, wife and woman. My best wishes to you and your family.

  10. Hi Lou,
    I can’t help financially but want to offer my thoughts & prayers to your family as your story is familiar to me.
    My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer at stage 4 Feb 2017,it had gone to his bones also,being a typical man he’d ignored my plea’s to see a Dr for months & when he did it was just to late,he died 19th Aug 2017. He did try chemo,radio,& immumo but nothing worked & he was just to tired to fight anymore.
    You sound so positive & strong,I truly believe these things help a lot.
    I loved reading about your honesty with your children mine are aged 13- 22 so not as young as yours but still to young to loose a parent,my advice to you would be to keep that up,kids know what’s going on,don’t they?
    I wish you & your family the best for the future,you are in my heart. Kirsty Cahill

  11. You are Amazing – keep smiling. Have put in a small donation, as a single mum I can’t put in what I’d like. But sending you healing love xx

  12. Dear Lou,

    I have been doing a lot of research regarding various forms of cancer. I am not a doctor and my background is in science. I don’t know if this will help but according to many research papers it is very possible that the following supplement may actually help shrink some cancers.

    I am aware this supplement is also used in some imunotherapy treatments. It is also used for cholesterol control. It is affordable and readily available. The only thing is you need to make sure you get the best grade and purity when you do your research. The type from an oyster mushroom appears to be the best one.

    The supplement is called Beta Glucan. My suggestion would be to get the strongest mg preferably minimum 1,000. The stronger the better. Make sure the quality is very high and it has been quality checked.

    All the best.

    Ines

  13. Hi Louise

    Nothing other than to say find the strength from somewhere and keep on fighting, what a beautiful family you are.

    Emma x

  14. Stay strong and my prayer is for God to bless you all with excellent health and a wonderful future.

  15. Get on line NOW. Google Ty Bollinger and The Truth About Cancer. He has made this his life’s work after losing family members to cancer. There is a lot that can be done and none of it includes toxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
    Stay strong for your family. You can overcome this.

  16. Father God, we uplift dear Louise,
    She is facing cancer today. We ask that you would bring healing, comfort and peace to her body. Let her experience the healing power of your Love.
    In Jesus mighty mighty name, Amen

  17. Louise,
    You are an amazing woman with an incredibly strong and loving family. I know you will beat this because you have such a positive mental attitude and that plays such a big part.
    When I was having chemo 35 years ago, with Hodgkin Lymphoma, a friend gave me Getting Well Again by O Carl Simonton and Stephanie Simonton, published by Bantam. It’s not a huge book at all, easy to read, and confirms and adds to the beliefs you already have about telling yourself it’s going to be ok. There are easy exercises to do, and amazingly simple explanations of what is going on in your body.
    I send a donation along with love, hope and prayers for you and yours.
    Lu Smith

  18. Hi Lou,

    Can you please look into treatment at https://www.hallwang-clinic.com i know many people including my sister that were treated in Germany since they are better at cancer research and treatment than Australia. Maybe they can assist to bring it into remission. Love and prayers your way.

  19. Medicinal cannabis oil. I cured my breast cancer with it in 2015. I decided against chemo, radiation, tamoxifen & all the opioids that come with it, now healthier than ever Search UBUNTU wellness clinic Newcastle. Ask for BJ xx My 4 kiddies are my biggest supports

  20. Dearest Louise, Sending lots of love and strength to you and the family, will be there on the 6th and Scarlett with me in spirit. Lots of love Louise.
    Love Libby Xooo

  21. Brave brave family . All prayers and thoughts for positive days ahead . Will make a small donation and will follow your progress . From Malaysia and London

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