A charity fund has been set up for a Derry woman who discovered she had a cancerous tumour in her spine after she broke her neck whilst 36 weeks pregnant.
Carol-Anne Coyle, who now lives in Amesbury, was forced to deliver her baby six weeks early and had to undergo emergency surgery followed by intensive chemotherapy.
She is currently waiting to hear if she qualifies for proton therapy in America and family friends have rallied round to help ease the financial burden on her and her seven-month-old daughter Savannah and 12-year-old son Cian.
The 31-year-old’s symptoms began almost a year previously when she started getting pains in her neck which were treated with physiotherapy, acupuncture and pain killers.
On October 29 last year, Carol-Anne’s mum, Trisha Coyle, received a phone call to say her heavily pregnant daughter had been taken to hospital after falling out of bed.
“When I got to Salisbury A&E she was in agony,” explained Trisha who originally hails from Abbey Street but moved to England 26 years ago and now live in Amesbury with her twin girls, Carol-Anne and her two grandchildren.
“One of the doctors spoke to me and said Carol-Anne had broken bones in her neck and she was unable to move from the neck down.
“They said they were going to move her to Southampton Hospital because they had a very good spinal unit.
“I spoke to her and told her I loved her and they prepared her for the journey.”
The next day Trisha travelled to Southampton where she got the devastating news that her daughter had a tumour in her neck.
“Her baby had been delivered and she was in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit and thankfully she was doing well,” said Trisha.
“Carol-Anne was in a coma in intensive care.
“I remember I rang my sister at home in Derry and told her and she immediately told me they would be over as soon as possible to support me.”
The Consultant told Trisha he suspected that Carol-Anne had Osteo Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer which usually affects young people in their lower limbs.
“He told me that the cure was amputation, but obviously that wasn’t an option for Carol-Anne,” said Trisha.
“The consultant showed me an x-ray of what was growing in my daughter’s neck.
“I looked across the ICU at my daughter’s bed, and asked him if I would ever speak to my daughter again and he said he couldn’t tell me that.
“He told me to pray and I told him that everyone I know in Derry would be praying and that the holy candles would be visible from space.
“He said he totally believed that would be the case.”
Trisha was told Carol-Anne would be taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital where she would have an operation on her spine to try and release the pressure of the tumour.
Coma
“My sisters arrived from Derry and looked after the kids and kept the house going while I went to Oxford the next morning,” she recalled.
“Carol-Anne drifted out of a coma and kept asking for her baby.
“They said Carol-Anne was going for major surgery that morning, so I told them they had to bring her baby so she could see her, because every time she drifted out of her coma she was asking for her baby.
“We managed to hold off the surgery that morning till they brought baby Savannah over from the NNICU.”
Minutes after meeting her baby daughter for the first Carol Anne was in theatre having the operation on her spine.
Seven hours later Carol Anne emerged from surgery. The operation had removed the part of the tumour that was pressing on the spinal cord, however, she remained in a coma.
“I sat and held her hand and talked to her constantly,” said Trisha
“We brought Savannah over to be in her mother’s arms as much as possible.
“Carol-Anne may not have known that Savannah was there, but her baby knew she was near her mammy.”
When Carol-Anne was brought out of her coma 10 days later she still didn’t have any feeling below the neck at this point.
Over the next few days Savannah made regular visits to her mother and as the feeling returned to her limbs she was able to hold the baby and feed her a bottle.
“Within seven days of her coming out of her coma she was making a good effort to wheel herself around the ward and soon after the physios had her in the gym at the Hospital,” said Trisha.
A biopsy and confirmed Carol Anne had Osteo Sarcoma and she was given a large neck brace which doctors described as her ‘outer scaffold’.
Damage
She began chemotherapy last November but unfortunately it wasn’t as effective as doctors had hoped and she has lost a lot of power on her left-hand side.
Carol-Anne spent Christmas in Southampton hospital having intensive chemotherapy, which continues to this day.
She had hoped to have a further operation to remove more of the tumour and stabilise her neck, but she was told it would greatly diminish her quality of life.
Consultants advised Carol-Anne the best option would be to have proton beam therapy, a targeted treatment and attacks the tumour from the inside and does not damage surrounding tissue.
Although there is a proton beam centre in Manchester they are not equipped to deal with Carol Anne’s tumour because it is so complex.
Her case is currently being put forward to a medical board to decide if the NHS will fund her treatment in America.
Doctors have told her she will be still be offered further radiotherapy in Southampton, but this will cause further damage to her soft tissues.
Support
Trisha’s friends have set up a just giving page to help raise money to support Carol-Anne if she gets the go ahead for proton therapy in America.
“At the start of this awful journey a lot of people were asking how they could help but being a proud family we never agreed to a collection.
“Apart from anything else we were too caught up in Carol-Anne’s treatment to even think about it.
“Financially it was difficult, but my family in Ireland rallied around and I was overwhelmed with their generosity.
“But as time went on Carol-Anne started thinking about wanting to make some memories with her children and ways of adapting her home so she could spend as much time with them as possible.”
Trisha says if her daughter doesn’t get the approval for Proton therapy the family will be forced to raise the money to fund it themselves
“Words cannot describe the generosity from friends, family and from people that don’t even know my family and myself.
“To each and every one who has donated I give my heartfelt thanks and also to the many people who have helped in other ways and continue to do so thank you”
To donate to Carol-Anne’s fund go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/emma-spencer-2
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