Alicia's Race for Life

I am looking to raise funds in memory of my amazing friend Danielle Hosie who sadly lost her 6 year battle to cancer in February this year. She was an inspiration to everyone , a beautiful , courageous and outgoing girl who lived her life to the fullest possible point. If possible please read her story below and donate even the smallest amount possible as every single penny will help fund more cancer research and help others in need who are struggling whilst fighting cancer. Thank you so much x Here is Danielle's story - At the age of 21 I was diagnosed with Cancer in the face, Saliva glands to be specific. The diagnosis took me 3 years to get because no-one expected a girl of my age, especially a non smoker to get this type of Cancer. Its called a Polymorphis – Adenocarcinoma. I was diagnosed with this on the 24th Jan 2012. I was told I would need surgery immediately to remove the tumor as it had spread to the glands in my neck. So on the 20th Feb 2012 I underwent the 16 hour operation to remove the tumors in my face and neck. Because of the sheer size of the tumor I had to have the left half of my face removed from the inside, Which later got rebuilt. I then underwent 7 weeks of intense radiotherapy which saw my face get scalded. It worked! The cancer was gone and over the next 3 years I underwent numerous operations to rebuild my face including : A nerve transplant from my left calf to my face, A Skin graft from my left thigh to my left forearm, A muscle transplant from my right thigh to my face Numerous fat grafts from my stomach to my face, A facial manipulation, A skin, nerve & Muscle transplant from my left forearm to my face, A neck dissection, A nerve transplant from the right side of my face to the left, Plus numerous other procedures such as fillers and botox. My life was just back on track and on 2nd Oct 2015 I was told the devastating news that my cancer had returned, this time in my head and was inoperable. They couldn’t tell me how long I had left but gave me treatment to shrink the tumors and give me longer with my family. I had 5 months of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of intensive radiotherapy again. Then I had a scan – By some sort of miracle there is no sign of the tumor !! However the scan showed something on my jaw. After a biopsy it was discovered I had developed Osteoradionacrosis. Basically my jaw bone was crumbling because I had so much radiation to that area. So In September 2016 literally days after being told my cancer had gone, I had to undergo major surgery and have part of my jawbone removed. This also required muscle and blood vessels to be taken from my back and put into my jaw. I was in hospital for 5 weeks unable to speak or eat, due to having several complications I was taken down to theatre many times & placed in an induced coma twice. I also had to have an emergency tracheostomy fitted so that I could breath. By January 2017 I had started to pick the pieces up and rebuild my life yet again, however I was now having back pain. On 19th March 2017 I discovered the back pain was in fact more tumors. There was 2 of them and they were pressing against my spinal chord causing It to narrow. I had to start radiotherapy again the next day to prevent any further damage. After further scans it transpired I also have 5 tumors in my lungs & had 1 on my hip bone that was causing so much pressure that my hip bone was at breaking point, so on June 1st 2017 I had a hip replacement. While recovering from this I was told my cancer was spreading fast. I now have 6 tumors on my spine, 5 on my lungs and 2 on my liver. August 22nd 2017 I started chemo again to try and shrink my tumors. After my 2nd round of chemo I took 2 sezuires & was rushed to hospital. This is when they found a new tumor on the lining on my brain. I was put on steroids & anti sezuire medication & started 5 roundsof radiotherapy to my brain while my chemo was put on hold for a week. After radiotherapy I got my 3rd round of chemo followed by a scan. The treatment hadnt worked- all my tumors were growing and hadnt responded to chemo or radiation and unfortunately no other treatment is available so as of the 10th of Nov 2017 i made the brave decision to stop all treatment. However this was not meant to be as just 6 days later (16th Nov 17) I was back in hospital in excruciating pain - they found yet another new tumor however this time its in the middle of my spinal chord. In order to prevent serious and permanent damage to my back & legs I began 5 days of radiotherapy the next day which i finished on 22nd Nov 17. I am now recovering from the treatment & looking forward to Christmas with my family as Im no longer sure how many more of these I will have So i thought i was done with hospitals for the year - Boy was i wrong. Today (Dec 26th) i was admitted into the Beatson where I was told i have yet another tumor. This time in my right bum bone. Thats right i literally have a pain in my ass ? So I'm now sporting 17 tumors ... I started yet another round of radiotherapy on Boxing day, i had 5 rounds and finished on Hogmany. Inbetween times having yet another blood transfusion because my haemoglobin levels had dropped so low. Meanwhile i was told that the tumor was pushing down on my bowel & bladder so much i had to have a cathatar fitted which I could have for life. At that point I was also put into a wheelchair as I could barely walk. This ia because the radiotherapy has caused so much swelling to the nerves running through my legs. I got home from hospital yesterday (5th Jan 18) - So I never got my fresh start for the new year, instead I got a new set of wheels. Hopefully as the swelling goes down I'll be able to lose the wheelchair & down grade to the crutches! In the past 5 years I’ve had a total of 21 tumors, 8 months of chemo, 87 rounds of radiotherapy, 4 blood transfusions, been in numerous comas not to mention the 20 operations I’ve had. Unfortunately because this type of Cancer is so rare the research on it simply doesn’t exist! So I want to raise awareness and hopefully we can carry out some research and try get an understanding of why the tumors spread like wildfire. The research isn’t out there to help me, But I’d like to help make sure that there is more information out there for anyone else that ever suffers the same disease as me, so that their suffering doesn’t have to be to the extent mine has. I don’t want everything I’ve been through to be in vein. I want my story out there and I want to be able to help others. Thank you to every single person who has been there to support me, including my friends, family, doctors, nurses, surgeons and my dog Alfie.