Race to raise funds to save mum's life after Sunderland teacher diagnosed with extremely rare cancer

Nathalie Eddison, a special educational needs and foreign language teacher who has covered supply roles on Wearside, began to experience symptoms relating to ocular melanoma in 2018 including migraines and issues with vision in her right eye.

She was treated by specialists in Sheffield using radioactive plaque therapy, leaving a small neutral are, which she was told could grow again.

After the pandemic hit and her check up was delayed, a scan found the disease has spread to her liver, with her illness said to be so rare it is a six in one million case.

The 57-year-old’s children say unless they can raise £120,000 in donations, she will be left with just months to live, as the clinical trial which could have helped her and funded through the NHS has been brought to a halt due to Covid-19.

They have set up an appeal for the chemosatursation programme in the hope so she will live and be able to see her sons Thomas, 20, and James, 18, finish their studies and her eldest son Antoine, 31, marry his fiance next year.

If they hit their target, the County Durham grandmother will undergo treatment privately in Southampton.

Her daughter Kayleigh Fearn, 33, who is mum to Amelie, two, said: “We need this to save our mum’s life and this is our best hope of getting her the treatment she needs, otherwise she has only got months.

"Our mum is so brave and has fought so hard already.

"She has dedicated her life to helping others and she’s the kindest, most thoughtful and selfless person we know.

"She is an amazing mum and grandma and she is loved beyond words.

"She has always been so healthy and fit so this has come as a huge shock and the unfairness of it all is hard to take.

"Having a cancer that is rare – six in 1 million – severely limits mum to what treatment she can have as there isn’t a lot of research available and the treatments that are available, can be extremely hard to access.”

Anyone who would like to donate can visit https://gf.me/u/y6zd6t.

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