By Jessica Micallef
Sunbury resident Sarah Bradbury’s “ultimate wish” is to get home to her family.
Ms Bradbury, 42, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a rare aggressive brain cancer, in December 2018.
Her sister Rebecca Dremel said Ms Bradbury was experiencing “numbness and pins and needles in her right arm” months prior to her diagnosis.
“Sarah was admitted to hospital on November 8, 2018 after collapsing at home and losing the function of the right hand side of her body,” Ms Dremel said.
“She was referred for an MRI and told there were some tiny lesions on her brain and that they indicated she may have had a multiple sclerosis (MS) episode.”
Ms Bradbury was admitted to Royal Melbourne Hospital, but she still had no diagnosis.
“Neurologists played tug of war over Sarah’s diagnosis … half convinced it was MS and the other half convinced it was brain cancer,” she said.
After nearly six weeks in hospital, Ms Dremel said her family received “the worse possible news”.
“It was confirmed Sarah did in fact have a rare aggressive brain cancer … glioblastoma multiforme stage four,” she said.
“We were told she only had a matter of months to live and surgery wasn’t an option at this stage.”
Ms Bradbury was transferred to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and, against recommendations, completed radiation treatment and her first round of chemotherapy.
“The radiographer advised Sarah not to do radiation as it would be very tiring and [was] not worth affecting the quality of time she had left,” Ms Dremel said.
“She ended up deciding to shave her head, which as you can imagine was very emotional.”
Ms Dremel said her sister had since been transferred to the palliative care ward at Royal Melbourne after an MRI scan found a new “spot” on her brain.
“This has not been an easy transition for Sarah and her ultimate wish is to get home to her family and be with her babies,” Ms Dremel said.
In order for her to come home, Ms Dremel said her sister required a second full-time carer, in addition to husband Heath, which would cost as much as $6000 a week.
“Her home also needs to be modified with a 14-metre ramp to give Sarah access into the house,” she said.
Her family has set up a GoFundMe page to help bring Ms Bradbury home: gofundme.com/sarah039s-village-needs-you
