Stacy Watkins, a 38 year old pillar of the Reading community received the devastating news that she was in stage 4 of neuroendocrine cancer. Her cancer began in her cervix and then spread to her liver and pelvis, due to this doctors gave her only months to live.
Cancer diagnosis is cruel for anyone but for Stacy and her family, it came as a further knock as the disease has touched many of their loved ones throughout their lives. Stacy's father has been diagnosed with non Hodgkin's lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemotherapy; she has also sadly lost her uncle, cousin and aunt to cancer. Additionally, Tia and Hayden, Stacy's children were born with heart conditions which brought an abundance of hospital stays. Hayden has had several pacemakers fitted throughout his life and fortunately now leads a typical healthy life. Tia underwent a heart transplant at just 3 years of age, causing her to miss out on a typical life of a toddler as well as the first steps into primary education. Despite a rocky start, Tia's transplant was successful and she's going strong 12 years later.
Given their family's health history, Stacy's friends and family refused to sit back and watch another loved one cripple at the expense of cancer. They began researching different clinics, doctors, methods and locations that could possibly help Stacy's recovery. It quickly became clear that the financial impact from such treatment would be their first obstacle so decided to set up a GoFundMe page for Stacy alongside a social media account and involve their whole community in an attempt to raise the vital funds required.
Goals Reading learned about Stacy's story through the local community who came together to support the family and were keen to get involved in any way they could themselves. Jack (Goals Reading General Manager) and his team shared Stacy's story onto their popular Facebook and Instagram pages, prompting others to get involved by donating to Stacy's fund. They also shared the 'Doing it for Stacy' Facebook and pinned it to the top of their social media to raise awareness of Stacy's life threatening cancer and what their mission was so contributors knew exactly who they were supporting. After reaching out, Goals reading arranged for Stacy's family to hold a cake sale at the club. The cake sale was a hit with the community and raised and amazing £1.6K to go towards Stacy's GoFundMe target.
Momentum was high and Stacy's family's fundraising efforts were going well, reaching a growing total of £38.5K. A personalised treatment plan of 3 weeks in Cancun's Outpatient Clinic at a starting cost of £39K had been established. However, Stacy's health continued to deteriorate, spending most of her time in hospital. She fought a hard fight after several cycles of intense chemotherapy but tragically passed at the beginning of April, with her other-half by her side. Stacy's Celebration of Life will take place at the beginning of May with donations going to the Royal Berkshire Hospital Charity, then onto the Adelaide Ward where Stacy was treated as well as Sue Ryder.