Good news for Melissa after cancer treatment

Apr 24 2009 By Adam Courtney

Melissa Huggins

MELISSA Huggins' British doctor is hopeful the Sunbury teacher can live longer than the ten years predicted by her American surgeon, if her cancer treatment has been a success.

Sunbury teacher Melissa, 27, of Bremer Road, Staines, was given the optimistic prognosis by doctors at Charing Cross Hospital, London, last week, as she undertook a first medical appointment since returning from Boston, America, where she underwent a £200,000, three-month course of proton radiotherapy to save her from aggressive brain cancer.

Melissa's dad Mark, of Queens Walk, Ashford, said: "The doctors in Boston said that, even if the treatment were a success, she might only live for another ten years. But she was told the Americans tend to be quite conservative and that, in actual fact, it could be longer than that."

St Ignatius Primary School teacher Melissa, 27, was at the hospital to undertake an MRI scan ahead of a four-month chemotherapy course, which begin on Monday (April 27).

She will come out on Wednesday, before having a three-week rest period and starting again at the end of next month. The cycle will repeated until July.

Mark says Melissa is feeling quite apprehensive about the latest course of treatment and has noticed she is becoming increasingly lethargic.

He said: "I think that is the proton treatment kicking in. When she was in London, she did quite a bit of walking and did a bit of shopping and the next day she said she ached all over.

"She is feeling a little bit apprehensive about the chemotherapy – everyone says how awful it is and, at the moment, we're not sure what good it's going to do. We've been told that the particular tumour she has tends to fight the treatment, rather than the other way round.

"But she has said she'd feel terrible if the cancer came back in two years and she hadn't done it. It's a bit of a waiting game."

Melissa will found out of her American treatment has been a success in June. Doctors say giving additional treatment of chemotherapy will act as an extra layer of protection.