A teen with cancer whose healthy twin experienced 'phantom' symptoms is raising £350k for life-saving treatment abroad.
Sophie Walker, 17, was diagnosed with Wilms tumour, a type of kidney cancer, in October 2017. Strangely, her twin sister, Megan, also suffered from similar symptoms - including back pain in the same location as Sophie's tumour - despite not having the disease herself.
Since then, Sophie has been given the all-clear three times but the cancer has always returned. Now the NHS has said they can't offer any more treatments and there are no clinical trials she can currently access. Her parents, Rebecca, 44, and Jamie Walker, 45 - along with Sophie's nine siblings - are fundraising for groundbreaking treatment abroad.
They hope to take Sophie to Germany for trans arterial chemoembolisation (TACE) treatment to shrink the tumours and then to America for immunotherapy - and have raised £78k of the £350k needed. Sophie has previously been to Germany for the treatment once, but needs to make multiple trips for it to be effective. Rebecca, who runs a hostel with husband Jamie, from Edinburgh, Scotland, said: "Looking at Sophie and Megan, they're so close, they're almost in-sync - it's like one person split into two people.
"How would Megan ever have a life without Sophie? We're not just worried about Sophie but about Megan as well. The treatment in Germany costs £4k per tumour so for both tumours plus expenses that's £10k per month then her high-dose vitamin C is £2k, so we're looking at £13k per month just on treatments. We've got enough to go back to Germany maybe one more time, it worries me that we might not be able to raise the funds."
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Sophie and Megan Walker (Rebecca Walker/SWNS)Over the last seven years Sophie has tried all options available on the NHS and has been told there is nothing more they can do. But a clinic in Germany has offered a groundbreaking new treatment which applies chemotherapy directly to the tumour via blood vessels. And if they're able to reduce the size of the tumour enough for Sophie to safely fly, the family are hoping to take her to America for an immunotherapy treatment in California.
In the meantime, Sophie and friends visited Disneyland Paris in January and she continues to receive blood and platelet transfusions with the NHS which keep Sophie's platelet levels up. "[After the treatment in Germany] I can feel her back tumour has shrunk down a lot," said Rebecca. "Our plan was to shrink them down enough in Germany so we could fly to America. When she had the tumours removed last year we had a piece sent to Canada. It is being tested to see if any medications can be used and which chemotherapies the tumour is sensitive to.
"Once we find out which immunotherapies her tumour is sensitive to, we can go to California for immunotherapy to help her body recognise the tumours. In Disneyland she was like any average 17-year-old, she's a big Star Wars fan and bought lightsabers. She got to be a normal teenager it was so nice to just watch her being normal."
Sophie's treatment fundraiser can be found here.
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