Powys gran sells furniture as she is determined to defy cancer

Cat Mackay was given between 18 months and three years to live when she was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in September 2020. Treatment for the cancer was free on the NHS as recently as 2016, but is now only available privately, leading Cat’s husband Darren to setting up a gofundme page in order to pay for her monthly Avistan treatment, which costs just under £1,000 each time, and which she undergoes alongside her chemotherapy sessions.

Together, the couple, who live in Llanddewi, near Llandrindod Wells, have raised £11,420, but the fund has dwindled, leading to adverts being placed on various Facebook sell and swap sites in recent weeks and months in order to pay the continued costs.

One beautiful wooden cabinet worth £1,000 was put up for sale for £100, while a table and chairs set recently sold for £200. But regardless of the loss she is making, Cat just wants to help pay for the next Avistan session as she is determined to stick around.

“I don’t want to go, I’m not ready to die,” said Cat, who is 62. It is clear from her warm but firm tone that she is a fighter.

“2020 was our worst nightmare, being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was the beginning of the greatest battle of my life. I’m still here and fighting as hard as ever.

“My husband started the page. Initially we had a good response but I’m not famous so it has started to dwindle. Chemo costs just under £800 a month so I decided to sell some furniture as we moved into a smaller house.

“It’s worth a few bob, but I’ve sold the table and chairs for £200, a unit’s going for probably £100, but still, that’s almost a month’s treatment. My family have given money and strangers too so it mounts up. We’ve ticked along for a while but it is getting really low now.”

Cat Mackay was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2020 - but that was eight months after she first found out something was wrong

Cat, a painter who has also raised money working for the Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse (CARA), is not originally from Powys but has lived here on and off for 30 years.

As well as having more than enough fight to stay alive, the mother-of-three is also determined to win another battle – she is taking legal action after waiting more than eight months to finally be told she had cancer.

Severe stomach pains resulted in her initially being admitted to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth in February 2020. She was told she needed an urgent biopsy but, after a number of weeks, was then referred to Hereford after being told her case was too complex for Bronglais to deal with.

In September she finally received the earth-shattering news. Her plight has left Cat feeling angry and she wonders whether the significant delays in her NHS treatment may have led to her cancer becoming incurable.

“I was told I had 18 months to three years, that there was nothing they could do, there was no treatment, no hope,” said Cat.

“They said palliative chemo care was what they provided and that was adequate. It was very cold. Our lives were turned upside down.

“I think the NHS are wonderful but there are individuals who chose to do nothing about what they’d seen on a scan and I ended up with a death sentence. The ones caring for people like me are very, very good but for others it seems to be just a case of ticking boxes.

“It makes me so angry because these people are playing with my life.”

Cat eventually found an oncologist who gave her hope, advising that Avistan, which was privatised in 2016, could help. “She took me on straight away and told me to forget what they’d said," said Cat.

“She got me on this drug Avistan, sadly it’s not on the NHS, it was until 2016 but since then it has been moved to the private sector with all the cuts. It’s not guaranteed to work and it won’t cure me but it could significantly help to prolong my life.”

To find out more about Cat’s story, visit her GoFundMe page at https://uk.gofundme.com/f/helping-cat-kick-cancers-ass.