A twin has shared her heartbreak after her sister was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer. Lyndsey Allen, 35, who lives in Meden Vale, was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer after she started feeling unwell while exercising at the start of the first Covid lockdown in April 2020.
Her twin sister Leanne Allen, 35, who moved into a home with her sibling in 2017, has spoken of how the neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis her sister received had 'ripped her family apart' and how she's praying Lyndsey will make it to September. A neuroendocrine tumour is a rare tumour that can develop in many different organs of the body and affects the cells that release hormones into the bloodstream.
"At the beginning of Covid when she started exercising more that's when problems started. We used to go out walking during that hour a day so we'd go 10 miles, and then she got to the point where she couldn't do it anymore because she kept on needing the toilet so many times a day," Leanne said.
"First she was misdiagnosed, then she got poorly for a couple of months. After she had scans done and then they found it all, with her starting going to hospital in April time in 2020 and being diagnosed in July, near her birthday.
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"The cancer she's got causes tumours to grow inside her body, which have attached themselves to all her organs. So there's no chance of having radiotherapy or anything.
"We actually nearly lost her in August of 2020, they gave her chemotherapy, she was run down and in the bathroom 15 times a day, so when they blasted her with chemotherapy we nearly lost her to sepsis.
"There were two tumours that were really big, in her pelvis it was 18cm and then there was another in her stomach and other places. She's in constant pain and on a lot of medication, with morphine, steroids, and everything.
"One of the tumours has developed in her right lung and collapsed it a bit, so she ended up doing a 10-day stint in hospital over the Easter Bank holiday when she had eight litres drained off her lung. And when she came out she burst out in tears because she couldn't breathe again."
Leanne praised the strength her sister has shown throughout her two-year fight with the cancer, and said that before the illness she was like a 'second mum' to her elder sister's children and had loved her job at Center Parcs. "We bought a house together in 2017, and it has been heart-breaking to watch her be impacted by the cancer when I'm with her.
"Since having cancer she's been the strongest one out of all of us, she's been incredibly positive despite it all. It's torn our family apart, mum and dad struggle because they're thinking they're going to lose a child before she hits 40.
"There's not been that much time in our lives when we haven't been together. I did four and a half years in the Army but when I came back I still went out and spent time with Lyndsey.
"She had always loved her job and loved dealing with customers when she worked at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest. And she's like a second mum to our sister's kids, she's always been there with them."
The twin added that following two worrying consultations she encouraged her sister to start her bucket list. Leanne started a fundraiser for her sibling to finance Lyndsey's dream trip to Orlando Disney, and said that she was praying Lyndsey would be there to see her run the Great North Run in September.
"I think we were a bit naïve on how sick she is, and in the last two consultations they asked if she was still in touch with the hospice in palliative care, which obviously means that things aren't great. So I said it's time that her bucket list gets smashed," Leanne, who works as a carer for children, added.
"She sent it over and I was wowed. The big one is that she's always dreamt of going to Orlando Disney, and there are other things like the Maldives.
"As part of it I'm planning to do the Great North Run and I'm praying that she will be here for that in September. We just want to get doing everything we can."
Lyndsey's friend Dawn Reynolds, 47, who lives in Mansfield Woodhouse and has known her for about eight years, said: "They've gone through everything together. The idea is all about making the most of the time she has left, as family and friends that's what we're trying help with.
"Lyndsey's one of those people who just gives and is always putting people first. Even when she was in hospital recently she was helping out the nurses and other patients, that's the sort of person she is.
"No age is good is it, but the fact she's only 35 is really awful. I just want her to make as many memories while she's well enough to do so." You can contribute to Lyndsey's fundraiser here.
