A COMMUNITY is rallying to help a Bradford mum diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Kasia Czerniga's world was turned upside down earlier this year when she received the devastating news she has a type of brain tumour called medulloblastoma.

Her family believe it is so rare that she is only the 33rd adult in the UK to be diagnosed with it. She is currently receiving radiotherapy treatment, but a campaign has now been launched in the hope of raising enough money to pay for proton beam therapy.

The 36-year-old mum's ordeal began last year, when she began suffering from headaches.

While initially thinking they were nothing to worry about, the headaches persisted.

Visits to her GP and opticians followed and eventually an MRI scan was arranged for February 13 this year. But in mid-January, after the headaches became so severe, her husband Robert, 37, insisted on taking her to hospital, where Kasia had a scan. The pair, who have two young children, were then dealt the devastating blow that it was 99 per cent cancer.

"I was feeling like I couldn't even control my body," Robert said.

"We both started crying."

Kasia, a hairdresser, then had to undergo a number of tests as doctors thought it was a secondary cancer and they needed to find the primary cancer.

All the tests came back negative for cancer, so blood tests for other diseases were carried out. Then in May, Kasia underwent a brain biopsy which revealed the medulloblastoma and she began radiotherapy last month.

But, in the hope of giving Kasia the best chance of survival, it's hoped she will be able to have proton beam therapy.

She will not be able to go through the NHS, so well-wishers are on a mission to help cover the £60,000 cost. The family, originally from Starogard Gdanski, Poland, but who now live in Greengates, have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.

Robert said: "It's a lot of money for treatment, but I just don't want to sit in the doctor's room again without having another option."

He described her a "doting mum" to Amelia, nine, and Fabian, 11, and said: "Whatever she does, everything is for them.

"She always puts them first. She's a very, very good mother, a very, very good wife.

"I could not ask for anything more."

He said the support had been "something special".

"It's pulling the community together, I'm really proud of that. I didn't know there was that many good people around us. I'm really, really amazed."

A fundraising event will be held tomorrow at the Polski Klub Jagoda, Edmund Street, between 11am and 5pm, where there will be stalls, an auction, raffle and more.

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