Appeal to help Castleford teacher Rebecca access life-extending cancer treatment
A Castleford primary school teacher is continuing to appeal for support to help her access specialist cancer treatments abroad as she battles terminal brain cancer.
Rebecca Taylor, 26, lives in Castleford with her partner Tom and their daughter Eliza, four and Willow, five.
Since her diagnosis around eight months ago, Rebecca has undergone brain surgery, radiotherapy, and multiple rounds of chemotherapy, with her current course due to finish this month.
She has also travelled to Germany four times for multimodal immunotherapy, with a fifth trip planned, alongside repurposed medications costing more than €800 per month.
Rebecca said her focus remains on her family, adding: “Everything I’m doing is about being here with them for as long as possible.”
She described the strain of her situation, saying: “Navigating all this has become a constant balance between fighting for more time and actually living it.”
Following further testing, doctors identified a very rare gene fusion linked to her cancer, described by Rebecca as a “switch” permanently turned on and driving tumour growth.
A targeted drug, Tepotinib, has been identified that could potentially turn this switch off.
However, it is not funded by the NHS in her case and would cost around €7,800 for the first two months, then €3,900 monthly.
Another drug, Vorasidenib, is also being considered but is only available on the NHS for certain tumour grades. Privately it would cost around €22,000 per month.
A personalised cancer vaccine has also been highlighted as a future option, designed to train the immune system to target her tumour, but costing over €65,000.
Due to the cost of treatment, Rebecca and her family continue to raise funds. Planned events include a 171-mile coast-to-coast bike ride from Morecambe to Bridlington, organised through URM Logistics, where her father works, and a Leeds Half Marathon challenge by friends.
Rebecca said she has been overwhelmed by community support.
She said patients in the UK often face limited treatment options and access to trials, adding that “nothing more can be done” can reflect funding limits rather than medical possibility.
She is calling for greater investment in brain tumour research and access to international treatments.
Search “Together for Becca- fighting brain cancer” on GoFundMe.com to donate.