"More than ever each individual cancer patient needs a friend - an experienced navigator in a sea of bureacracy and chaos.
Kate Spall has tirelessly served hundreds of patients to help them achieve optimal care within the NHS. Increasingly the attitude of those making funding decisions within the NHS is passive. If you don't ask you don't get. And how you ask has assumed immense importance to the chances of success.
Patient advocacy has never been more important than in 2010. By her work Kate is enhancing not just the quality of care for those she helps directly but also the lives of many other cancer patients"
Clinical Advisor
Professor Karol Sikora
Click here to read full story
Case Studies
Michael's Story
Michael contacted the fund in February 2009. He was 24 and desperately ill with bowel cancer. This came completely out of the blue, considering Michael was an extremely fit and healthy young man. The oncologist recommended the drug Avastin as the best possible treatment for him.
The local PCT decided not to fund this, although the panel of Non Medical directors decided they would grant the funding for this treatment for Michael.
Kate Spall managed to overturn this decision in 10 days.
Since Michael received Avastin, he has been travelling and enjoying his life by skydiving in Spain.
“It was a real pleasure to be part of Michael’s recovery.”
Personal Statement
Born in Bath, I had an excellent upbringing, taking advantage of every sporting, academic and social opportunity. My reports were rarely outside the top five percent and I was considered academically gifted.
I swam, winning the school Victor Lodorum at the age of thirteen. I was a faithful member of the local surf lifesaving club where I was involved in multiple first aid and rescue situations. Later, I discovered the joy of distance running and after competing in cross country and athletics at school, decided to coalesce my love of swimming and running and enter a triathlon. I immediately
took to the sport, dedicating up to five hours a day to training during school holidays and waking before five every weekday morning to be picked up by my swimming coach. In the last few years of
school, I trained and raced relentlessly, twice competing at national championships.
After leaving school, I moved to London where I found work as a plumber's mate on the Citibank
building in Canary Wharf. This was followed by a further year and a half of various construction
work. Subsequently, I worked in arbouricultural services and landscape gardening. During the many
hours spent shuttling around London on my way to and from work, I read various books and
developed a particular interest in physics. Keen to cultivate that interest, I enrolled on a two-evening-
a-week physics and mathematics course at Birkbeck College. The Certificate in Life
Sciences course constituted the equivalent to A levels and fulfilled the entry requirements for a
university degree. So, although it had never been my intention to take my studies to degree level,
when the opportunity to apply presented itself, I grabbed it with both hands. I secured offers from
Bristol, Exeter, Swansea and Bath Universities, settling (without having to give it much thought),
on Bath.
In late 2002, I returned to Bath to prepare for university and undertake a long-term dream. While
working as a carer in a retirement home, I began to build up my weekly swimming, running and
cycling mileage. The long hours culminated in the fantastic realisation of my ambition to compete
in the gruelling UK Half-Ironman Triathlon Championships in September. With another two years
left in my age group, I managed 8th of about 65. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that
competing in that race was the most exhilarating and joyful experience of my life, due probably in
part to the long-term dedication it had taken to reach that point.
The attainment of a B.Sc.(hons) Physics degree is a source of great pride when I consider the
countless hours of intense focus required to achieve it and supporting myself through hard removal
work. My studies opened my eyes to the scale, incredible beauty and boundless practical application
of physics. These are facets I am very keen to pass on to the younger generation, particularly at a
time when physics is at its most exciting but the number of students choosing physics as a school
subject is low.
Following my graduation, I moved to Cape Town in South Africa, working as a maths and physics
tutor initially. This was a chance to try and impart some of my enthusiasm for physics and I gained
a lot of insight working with my students. Now that I am beginning to recover some strength, I am
starting to advertise my skills as a mathematics and physics tutor. Tutoring five students, between
chemotherapy sessions, would help those students achieve higher exam results, keep my physics
ability honed and allow me to feel as if I am making some contribution to society again after a
frustrating inability over the last five months.
In 2002, I qualified as a personal trainer and in Cape Town, I had the chance to put my experience
into practice as a travelling trainer. While not providing the intellectual stimulation I had enjoyed
during my time at university, I found helping people improve their health and self-image to be
rewarding in its own right. It also allowed me to indulge in my own training in a beautiful
environment. Occasionally I tested myself with a run to the summit of Table Mountain and down
again. It feels so far away now but it was less than two years ago. It is my fervent desire to return to
my former fitness and compete in endurance events. There are some wonderful cancer charities,
doing very worthwhile work and helping a lot of people and I would like race to raise funds for
those causes.
Before returning to England I took advantage of a short-term opportunity working in a company
supplying renewable energy components. This was an area I had been interested in since shortly
after starting university and I learned a lot during my time there.
Back in England, I moved to Brighton to take up a place on a Masters degree in Cosmology at the
University of Sussex. Cosmology and particle physics had for a long time been the particular areas
of physics that most appealed to me and I took full advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as
possible while still balancing my fitness and social life. My thesis involved the computer simulation
of cosmic strings, theoretical bands of intense energy, the length of the universe, supposedly left as
a relic of the Big Bang.
I completed my studies with little time to spare. Less than six weeks after finishing the degree, on
October 13th, I was admitted to the Royal United Hospital with severe abdominal pain. After a week
of testing, I was scheduled for an emergency operation to remove a large tumour from my large
intestine. Eight days later, on the 30th of October, I was informed of my cancer diagnosis. It was
made plain that I would not recover from this illness, the cancer had already spread to my liver and
peritoneum. The question, “What are the chances of survival?” was met with, “Miracles do
happen.”.
Immediately following this diagnosis, bowel cancer nurse specialist, Siobhan John, stressed the
vital importance of obtaining Avastin. She made it clear that with such a diminished prospective
lifespan, Avastin would add at least a few precious months. I grasped this information like a
drowning sailor would grab a lifeline.
Now that I have had the time, between recovering from surgery and undergoing chemotherapy, to
bring my abilities and goals into sharper resolution, I have found a method of combining my skills
to greatest effect. To this end I have spent much time studying house building, with particular
regard to straw bale building. My experience in construction, landscape gardening, tree-surgery, the
renewable energy sector and physics lends itself well to the design and construction of sustainable
straw bale homes. It is my intention to, with an architect friend, design and build at least one low cost,
carbon-neutral home a year.
At the same time, I have been studying horticulture with the intention of one day growing organic
cut flowers, fruit and vegetables for sale at farmers' markets.
Now able to eat again, the enjoyment I gain through cooking nutritious and tasty food has been
rejuvenated. With wholesome, healthy eating and yoga, I am starting out on the long road to
recovering my former fitness and achieving my ultimate dream of completing a full distance
Ironman triathlon, hopefully raising some funds for cancer charities along the way.
There are still a myriad of goals and aspirations I wish to fulfill. A limited timespan brings the
priorities into sharper relief though and between Ironman racing for charity, building sustainable
homes and trying to promote an appreciation of physics in my tutees, I believe I still have a
valuable contribution to make to my community.
With a 0.002% probability of bowel cancer occurrence in men of my age, it is not surprising that the
sudden diagnosis took me by complete surprise. The last thing I expected at the age of twenty-seven
was to be struck down with such a disease. I have had to deal with many crushing blows throughout
this journey and have dealt with them all quietly and without fuss; to know that a group of people
have sat in a room and decided I am not worth a chance is perhaps one of the hardest to bear. There
are many patients who live far longer than a few months with Avastin and I believe I, and those who
love me, have a right to be given that chance.
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