After being diagnosed with terminal stage-4 cancer, Nicola Hitchen, a 41-year-old mom from Chester, is finding support in the most unexpected of people: her ex-husband’s new wife.
Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Clare Hitchen, Nicola’s ex-husband’s new wife, has been the one in charge of fundraising for Nicola’s expensive treatments.
Nicola, the mother of 2 sons aged 12 and 14, was diagnosed with cervical cancer after being admitted to the intensive care unit for sepsis resulting from a large abscess on her cervix. Prior to this admittance, Nicola had been experiencing pain, but doctors had told her it was due to the healing of a surgery she had undergone prior.
After being admitted to intensive care, doctors could not treat Nicola’s cancer until the sepsis infection had been cleared. During those 7 short weeks, her stage-2 cancer progressed to stage 4— and doctors told her it was too late, that there was nothing they could do.
According to the Independent UK, the Hitchen family looked into a number of alternative treatments, finally coming across ChemoThermia, a center in Turkey with a very high success rate for treating Nicola’s particular type of cancer. Nicola explained to the Chester Standard, “Getting a diagnosis like that, you can respond in one of two ways. Either you accept this is what’s happening and sort your affairs out—or you start looking at other option. The first wasn’t an option for me.”
Nicola has already made multiple trips to the ChemoThermia center and has already seen a significant improvement in her health.
She told the Chester Standard UK, “In 10 days, I went from being on six or seven painkillers a day to not needing any. It was amazing.”
Unfortunately, each trip is expensive— costing roughly £10,000. As a result, Clare Hitchen knew she had to step in and help out, fundraising to help cover the price of Nicola’s costly treatments.
On Clare’s JustGiving page (a website similar to GoFundMe), she explains, “Niki recently told me that they have big ‘decisions’ to make as the money is running out and she may not be able to continue with her life-saving treatment. “
“I feel this is not an option; the boys need their Mum, and she deserves the chance to watch them grow into men and have their own families.”
At the time of this writing, the Hitchen family has achieved over half (£26,198) of their £50,000 goal.
On November 7th, Clare wrote, “Niki is due to go back to Turkey very soon for another 10 days of treatment, this may not have been possible without your support.”
“All donations no matter how big or small along with your lovely messages of support are making a massive difference to Niki’s journey.”
In response to the media attention and support, Nicola has said, “I’m completely overwhelmed— everyone has been amazing. I didn’t think people liked me that much!”
- If you’d like to donate towards Nicola Hitchen’s treatment, just visit Clare’s JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nicola-hitchen.
- For updates and information regarding additional fundraising events, please see the “Nicola Hitchen’s Lifesaving Cancer Treatment” Facebook page.
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