Newquay mum in battle for her life after brain cancer diagnosis

A fundraiser has been launched to help care for a young mum from Cornwall diagnosed with stage four terminal brain cancer and help her young family. Clare Mountifield, 48, has been receiving cutting-edge cancer treatment in a fight to extend her life and has now returned home.

Friends launched a fundraising campaign to help the Newquay mum's husband Nick look after her and for the couple's eight-year-old son Olly to be able to do nice things in the future. Her friend Emily Bendall, who set up the GoFundMe campaign said: "Clare has a heart of gold and is the most amazing mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend to so many people. She has been extremely brave and this news has come as a huge shock to everyone who knows them.

"This is a way for the community to get together to give them everything they need and deserve during this time. They are the most selfless family and have always put others first and I know they will be extremely grateful for any support."

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The campaign has reached its original target but Emily now hopes to raise even more to help the family now and in the future.

Clare and Nick, who moved from South Devon to Cornwall, are researching treatment and therapy to extend Clare's life and help them enjoy the time they have together. Clare was only diagnosed in February. She has undergone some state-of-the-art cutting edge treatment at a top London hospital after the family read about a Sussex man going through the same thing in The Guardian newspaper.

The story mentioned how Ben Trotman, 41, took part in a clinical trial that used immunotherapy to target his glioblastoma, an invasive growth of cells in the brain that gives an average life expectancy of nine months. The National Brain Appeal, which funded the treatment, provided a positive update on Mr Trotman’s condition 16 months after his treatment started in November 2022.

Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain tumour and affects 3,200 people in the UK each year. The disease killed the former Labour cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell, 70, in 2018 as well as the singer Tom Parker, 33, of boyband The Wanted in 2022.

Clare has now had some initial sessions of this experimental treatment in London in early April but is not currently strong enough to continue with this treatment at this time.

Nick, who has given up his job as a landscape gardener to be her full-time carer, said: "Unfortunately after some initial sessions, it turned out that Clare was not strong enough to continue with the experimental treatment in London. We’re now back in Cornwall and for now our focus is on keeping Clare comfortable.

"We continue to explore other options for treatment and therapy. Clare is spending lots of quality time with family and, with the use of a wheelchair, following some further deterioration in her health, we’re taking her out and about to get fresh air and enjoy spring in Cornwall, whenever possible."

In an update on the GoFundMe page, Nick wrote: "We had to fight for this opportunity, because up until now, nothing was offered to Clare. All along this horrible journey, the one thing Clare kept saying was..... 'I never got the chance to fight this thing'.

"As a lovely member of the hospital staff in Truro said to me, on Clare's first MRI scan... 'Your strength should be measured in how you are loved as a person, so you are strong, and you have got this'. Clare has all that strength, because all of you have shown her how much she is loved. So can we please as her family, thank you all from the bottom of our hearts? Without your generosity, Clare may not have had the best possible chance to fight with this treatment."

To help the family care for Clare and for future support for the family visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-to-support-clare-mountfield-and-family