![\"Mum-of-three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ZCR_BEM_010925maeve2_05jpeg.jpg\")
Mum-of-three Maeve Fanning needs to raise money for life-saving cancer treatment<\/p>\nMaeve Fanning needs \u00a311,000 a month to pay for private treatment<\/p>\n
14:43, 01 Sep 2025Updated 16:14, 03 Sep 2025<\/p>\n
Mum-of-three Maeve Fanning needs to raise money for life-saving cancer treatment<\/p>\n
A Birmingham mum with three young children is fighting for her life after being diagnosed with stage four cancer – after initially thinking she had indigestion.<\/p>\n
Maeve Fanning had just started a new job, her middle child had settled into primary school and life was great.<\/p>\n
Her doctor prescribed indigestion tablets but she found she was becoming increasingly breathless, to the point where she needed to sit down when she reached the top of the stairs.<\/p>\n
Read more: Widow, 72, returns to work after mortgage shock<\/a><\/p>\n A CT scan on Christmas<\/a> Eve 2024, and additional tests, revealed the devastating news that she had cancer.<\/p>\n But it wasn’t until February this year that she was told ‘every mother’s worst nightmare’ – that she actually had a rare cancer called thymoma and that it was stage four, advanced and inoperable.<\/p>\n At just 38, she has been given less than two years to live. Her three children – Oonagh, Cormac and Ciaran – were just eight, four and 18 months and have had birthdays since their mum has been in hospital.<\/p>\n “It was a massive shock and just devastating,” said Maeve, from Kings Heath<\/a>.<\/p>\n “My youngest was just 18 months old and at the time I wasn’t sure if Christmas 2024 would be my last with them.<\/p>\n “It’s a horrendous situation, every mother’s worst nightmare and this is why I need to do everything I can to ensure I am still here for them.”<\/p>\n Starting palliative chemotherapy in a bid to prolong her life, CT scans showed a good response after three rounds.<\/p>\n But sadly, after the fifth round, the chemo stopped working and she began getting worse.<\/p>\n Maeve and her husband Paddy worked tirelessly to try to find a way for her to beat the cancer.<\/p>\n They discovered a private treatment that was getting good results so, three weeks ago, she began treatment in London – at a cost of \u00a311,000 a month. It includes hyperthermia, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, curcumin infusions and light therapy.<\/p>\n Please donate to Maeve’s GoFundMe page here<\/a> to help her raise the \u00a3100,000 she needs.<\/p>\n “It’s extortionate but the treatment is showing it is potentially curable,” she explained. “There are people who have gone from stage four to stage zero.<\/p>\n “I just want to see my beautiful children grow up. I am trying absolutely everything to ensure I am alive and healthy to see that.<\/p>\n “My eldest is only nine. Two of them had birthdays in January when I was in hospital. They know I have cancer but they have no idea how serious it is because we’ve played it down, just telling them I’m getting treatment and I will get better.<\/p>\n “They know I have to have medicines and that I’m in and out of hospital a lot. It’s made them really clingy, it’s changed them.”<\/p>\n Maeve says Paddy’s employers Jaguar Land Rover<\/a> have been really supportive as have her employers in her new job in pharmaceutical sales.<\/p>\n Fortunately, her mum and dad live round the corner and they have lots of support from friends and family.<\/p>\n “It’s made me enjoy every day with my children. We don’t have to be racing around doing day trips and ticking off things we want to do.<\/p>\n “Just being with them is what matters, it’s not always the big, amazing things, it’s the little moments together that are important.”<\/p>\n![\"Maeve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ZCR_BEM_010925maeve_03.jpg\")
Maeve Fanning, her husband Paddy and three children are raising money for life-saving cancer treatment<\/p>\n![\"Maeve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ZCR_BEM_010925maeve2_08jpeg.jpg\")
Maeve Fanning, her husband Paddy and three children are raising money for life-saving cancer treatment<\/p>\n![\"Maeve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_ZCR_BEM_010925maeve2_03jpeg.jpg\")
Maeve Fanning having fun with her older children<\/p>\n