Friends of Melissa Huggins form human chain

Jul 7 2009 By Adam Courtney, Staines News

HUNDREDS of people formed a chain between a Shepperton church and the Sunbury school of brave cancer sufferer Melissa Huggins, to raise money for her fighting fund on Saturday.

The human chain, including Melissa, 27, of Bremer Road, Staines, her parents Mark and Lorraine, fiancé James Pegram and sister Katrina, raised £2,500 for the teacher, who is on the verge of completing a three-month chemotherapy course following her groundbreaking radiotherapy treatment in Boston, America.

The event was sponsored by Pom Wonderful, a pomegranate juice firm [pomegranates are thought to have health-giving properties], and a beaker of the juice was passed along the chain between St John Fisher Church, in Wood Road, Shepperton, and St Ignatius Primary School, in Green Street, Sunbury, where Melissa teaches.

Dad Mark, of Queens Walk, Ashford, said: "It was a unique event and a really good idea. I was about a third of the distance away from the church and the beaker took about an hour to reach me. It's a great amount of money to raise."

The family are waiting for the results of an MRI scan, taken at Charing Cross Hospital, London, a fortnight ago, which will give them an idea of whether Melissa's £250,000 American treatment has been effective.

Mark said: "We still haven't heard back because the results are being sent to Boston.

However, it will be difficult to get a definitive answer on whether the treatment has been a success because they won't be able to tell if the tumour is dead, alive or dormant. We'll get that from the follow-up scans and I think for the next six months to a year it's a case of watch and wait."

To 'boost' the effects of the radiotherapy, Melissa has been on a three-month chemotherapy programme in London, which Mark says has left her terribly tired.

He said: "She struggles a lot with it, but this is the end of the treatment for now and hopefully she will get fitter and stronger as the months go on. She is hoping to get back to work in September."