A mum-of-three "desperate" to watch her children grow up is raising thousands of pounds for ground-breaking cancer treatment.

Madeline Goode-Marshall, 44, is undergoing gruelling radiotherapy for a brain tumour that carries a life expectancy of just two to five years.

But she hopes to raise £25,000 for avant-garde treatment in Germany that could give her a "second chance at life".

"I am desperate to be around to watch my children grow up and to grow old with my husband," said the mum, from Chartham, near Canterbury.

Madeline suffered with symptoms such as weight loss and chronic fatigue for several years before eventually receiving her devastating diagnosis in May.

"Over a four-year period I had gained weight and I couldn't understand why," she said. "My diet and exercise routine hadn't changed.

"I also had terrible fatigue.

"I was sleeping on average about 14 hours a night."

Madeline is now keen to encourage other people to take their symptoms seriously and seek help.

"Sometimes when you're a woman you put it down to having children or being pre-menopausal, but actually the symptoms you have could have something more serious," she said.

"I've had lots of blood tests over the years and seen doctors, but nothing showed up."

Things worsened in December, when Madeline developed excruciating headaches.

Two days before Christmas, her husband David rushed her to A&E following a telephone consultation with her GP.

"My arms had gone dead, I had tingly fingers, I was struggling with walking, stumbling," she recalled.

But at A&E, medics believed she had an infection and she was sent home with antibiotics.

Madeline also put some of her symptoms down to grief at the loss of her mother, who died suddenly before Christmas.

But her problems persisted, and in April she went back to her GP and asked for a brain scan.

"By then I'd started Googling," she said.

"I felt very scared about what was going on.

"I was getting out of bed and couldn't walk properly."

In early May, Madeline was finally given a scan which revealed a grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma tumour measuring 6cm by 7cm - the size of a small orange.

"I wasn't prepared to be told it was cancer," she said. "I was so shocked and I still am."

Madeline feels the Covid pandemic played a "major part" in delaying her diagnosis.

"It meant it was difficult to get referrals," she said.

"I've had the added pressure of kids being off school. I genuinely didn't have time to put myself first.

"But I think if I had been able to see my doctor face-to-face at Christmas - and they had seen I wasn't able to walk in a straight line - it would have been acted on a lot quicker.

"And six months could have meant the difference it progressing from a grade 2 tumour to a grade 3."

Madeline underwent a nine-hour craniotomy at Kings College Hospital in July.

But not all of the tumour could be removed, due to its location in her brain.

She is now undergoing a gruelling course of radiotherapy, and will then undergo a year of chemotherapy.

"It suppresses the tumour, but it doesn't get rid of it," she said.

"This type of tumour will regrow and when it does it will come back more aggressive. I then will only have a life expectancy of six to 12 months."

Madeline is now raising £25,000 so she can travel to the Hufeland Clinic in Germany, which offers ground-breaking cancer profile tests and immune-boosting therapy which she hopes will prevent the tumour from regrowing, and could give her "a second chance at life".

She has so far raised almost £7,000 of her goal.

To donate, visit her Gofundme page.

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