Bangor student in fundraising bid for rare cancer drugs trial

A County Down student hoping to take part in a drugs trial for cancer treatment has raised over £100,000 pounds in just two days.

Rachel Osborne was diagnosed with a rare type of spinal cancer in July.

She has undergone intensive surgery and treatment.

The 18-year-old told Downtown Cool FM about her diagnosis:

"It's a really rare and aggressively-growing tumour, at the minute there is no known cure.

"Finding out about my diagnosis was one of the weirdest days of my life.

"Five weeks after my surgery we found out what my diagnosis actually was because my tumour had to get sent away to London and Germany to get checked."

Rachel's family began a fundraising bid for other treatment options and have raised almost £140,000.

She aims to travel to America to take part in a clinical trial but admits she is not sure how expensive it will be.

Rachel told us about her current journey through treatment:

"Since the diagnosis I got started really quickly, a week and a half after I found out.

"At the minute I'm getting... radio and chemotherapy, that's what they say is the most effective treatment but you can only get radiotherapy once.

"The type of tumour that I have does come back and then grows at a much faster rate.

"Because I can't get radiotherapy again, there's no way to kill it for a second time."

Rachel is determined to try other options to combat the cancer if it returns and hopes to travel to the United States as soon as possible to participate in the drugs trial.

She has just finished school and plans to go to the University of Glasgow next year, with the help of this potentially life-prolonging drug.

The 18-year-old cannot begin her course this year due to her treatment.

However, she told Downtown Cool FM she is hopeful for the future:

"We really had to start looking at other options because the doctors said I can get six weeks of treatment but that just isn't enough for what I have.

"My uncle and auntie who are oncologists started to do more research and found out about this clinical trial in America.

"The drug that I will hopefully be taking works for the exact mutation that is in my tumour, it's given success to the highest amount of people...it's the most positive potential treatment option that I could have."

The brave student paid tribute to her friends and family for their support:

"We started the Go fund me page two nights ago and have already raised about £136,000 which is amazing.

"Me and my family have just been completely overwhelmed by the support from so many people both who we know and don't know.

"Hopefully that will be able to cover the cost of treatment, we don't know exactly how much it's going to cost yet so what we might do is increase the target and then donate any further money to charity."

You can donate to her campaign here