Mum fights for more time with family

Nikki and Vincent Williams with their children Matthew and Alexander.

Two-and-a-half years ago, Nikki and Vincent Williams and their two boys Matthew and Alexander, were your typical New Zealand family.

Matthew, who is on the Autism spectrum, was beginning school and, after years of renting, the couple had finally managed to lay down a deposit and purchase their first family home.

Family life was bustling and busy, but what happened next would stop them in their tracks.

At only 37 years old, Mrs Williams was diagnosed with terminal stage IV colorectal cancer and told she had six months to live.

"The C word had never entered my mind so it was a huge shock for me," she said. "When they told me that it wasn't just cancer, but advanced cancer and I must have had it for a long time, I couldn't believe it."

After 28 cycles and three different chemotherapy drugs, Mrs Williams has been battling for life. The treatments have proven ineffective and her now protruding stomach is slowly diminishing her quality of life.

"We wanted to buy a house, we wanted to do this and do that, but that's not what is important. These two boys are, and I want to have as much time with them as I can."

With traditional treatments no longer an option, Mrs Williams has carefully researched her options for improving her survival time, and has found an Australian surgeon willing to perform an innovative surgery on her.

Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy treatment, delivered directly to the abdomen during surgery.

Doctors perform cytoreductive surgery to remove visible tumours within the abdomen and once as much of the tumours as possible are removed, the heated, sterilised chemotherapy solution is delivered directly to penetrate and destroy remaining cancer cells.

The surgeon has declared Mrs Williams a perfect candidate for successful surgery, however with treatment only available in Australia, it will cost around $140,000.
Friends have set up a Givealittle page to help the family work towards their goal, along with other various fundraising activities.

"We are so grateful for the support our friends and family have shown us and will continue to fight with everything we have to get Nikki to Australia and be around longer for our boys," Mr Williams said.

To donate go to givealittle.co.nz/cause/nikkiwilliams. You can also follow Nikki's fight on Facebook at nikkisjourney.