A woman who was misdiagnosed by doctors as having stomach pains has lost her three-year battle with cancer.
Laura Gilmore Anderson was found to have an incurable form of cancer in her pancreas. The 36-year-old was given just months to live in 2020 when she was diagnosed with rare cancer Neuroendocrine. She finally received the diagnosis after her symptoms had been passed off as irritable bowel syndrome, food intolerance and then endometriosis.
She sadly passed away on April 8, at 11.11am, just two days after her birthday. The former IT graduate, who was originally from Longford in Ireland, was fundraising in February along with her husband, Paul. They were trying to raise the cash to go to Mexico to undergo an immunotherapy treatment offered by the William's Cancer Institute.
As reported by The Scottish Sun, the new treatment had seen positive results in patients with similar diagnoses to Laura and a GoFundMe set up to help with the costs raised over £402,000 which will now be given to a number of charities chosen by Laura. Her sad passing was revealed in a statement on Laura's fundraising Instagram.
The family wrote: "It is with huge sadness we have to share our beautiful girl Laura lost her fight this morning at 11.11am. She fought so hard right until the very end and passed peacefully at home surrounded by love. No words can express our loss and I know so man of you will be deeply affected by this news as you were all routing for her.
"Laura will be with us all, in her husbands words, 'she will be in every rainbow and every sunset'. We are so incredibly proud of Laura, she is the strongest woman and our lives were truly blessed by her presence. Love you always, Laura. Rest in peace." The organiser of the GoFundMe campaign Lauren McKeen also paid tribute to Laura.
She said: "She was the bravest, most courage girl and truly fought until the very end." Her funeral is due to take place back home in Ireland tomorrow. Laura, who lived in Penicuik, West Lothian, had found out her cancer had spread to her stomach, liver and lymph nodes earlier this year.
She had previously gone through an unsuccessful treatment of gruelling chemotherapy before turning to a 'non-toxic' medication in Mexico costing more than £50,000. She previously said she was hoping the treatment would give her more time with her husband fearing she was "too young to die."
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