A mum of three is fighting against the clock to raise money to fund lifesaving treatment after her itchy hands turned out to be a rare and deadly form of cancer. Maria Barry, 58, who lives in Harrow, north west London, with her children, Nico, 32, Luca, 30, and Nadia, 27, began suffering from itchy and cracked hands during the first lockdown in March 2020.
At first Maria thought it was a reaction to a new cleaning product she was using, but in April 2022 she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer – which is rare, with around 1,000 new cases a year in the UK according to the NHS. Without treatment, she now has just three to six months to live.
Maria, a children’s nursery manager, said: “The gene therapy treatment that I need isn’t available on the NHS and costs £16,500 a month privately, so we are desperately trying to raise money using a GoFundMe page. Anything that we can get will go towards saving my life. My kids all live at home with me and I don’t have grandchildren yet. I’m not ready to die, I’m fighting to live.”
