Greenwood woman Natasha Sims needs helping hand to fund German cancer treatment

ADVERSITY is all too familiar for Greenwood grandmother Natasha Sims.

Ms Sims (50) grew up in a children’s home from the ages of seven to 15.

Her first marriage ended when her husband developed a “very traumatic” mental illness.

Then two years ago, she was diagnosed with a stage 3B ovarian tumour.

Doctors removed her fallopian tubes, appendix and some of her abdominal lining.

Aggressive chemotherapy followed and she thought she had beaten the disease.

But seven months later the cancer returned.

While Ms Sims does not particularly like asking for help, the relapse has forced her hand.

The resilient woman, who last year raised nearly $20,000 for the Ovarian Cancer Foundation, is hoping to head to Germany for treatment not available locally.

Perth specialists have advised she needs more chemotherapy, which is a direction she does not want take this time around.

An Australian immune therapy trial was a possible alternative, but Ms Sims was rejected as a candidate.

“I’m scared of the consequences because the more treatment I have, the weaker my immune system becomes and the more chemo-resistant my body becomes,” she said.

The German treatment is known as hyperthermia, which exposes body tissues to high temperatures with the aim of killing cancer cells while leaving minimal damage to healthy ones.

Ms Sims is looking to raise $50,000 to attend a six-week treatment program at Hufeland Klinik, located in a town just over 100km from Stuttgart.

A single mum at the age of 16, she became a grandmother at age 39 and met a “good man”, who is now her husband.

She believes she did not experience true happiness until that point.

“I never regretted becoming a young mum, but it was tough,” she said.

“I want to see my young grandchildren grow up because family is everything to me.

“It’s hard asking for help, but this may cure me.”

Ms Sims is an avid campaigner for ovarian cancer awareness, having experienced the difficulty of diagnosis with doctors taking almost a year before they discovered her illness.

“It’s so hard to diagnose and most women aren’t aware until too late, and most don’t live past five years after diagnosis,” she said.

Ms Sims has so far raised more than $20,000 for her treatment.

To donate visit www.gofundme.com/222aww58.