Portsmouth lecturer's GoFundMe for German cancer treatment raises £5,000

Mother of two Jules Pettitt was first diagnosed with cervical cancer nearly two years ago and her treatment was initially successful but in May she was told it had spread.

Now, the senior academic hopes to go to Munich, Germany, for a new remedy, known as dendritic cell therapy, where immune cells are harvested and taught to recognise the tumours.

When the cells are reintroduced to the body they show the rest of the immune system how to kill the cancerous cells before they can attach to vital organs.

Ms Pettitt was a senior lecturer in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth for 20 years and for the past two years she has been an associate lecturer in CGI and visual effects at Solent University.

The 57 year old explained that this therapy will give her the 'best shot' at stopping the cancer's growth and detailed the 'massive' impact the disease had had on her family with her 24 year old son, Oscar, becoming her carer.

Ms Pettitt, who lives in the city, said: "It has been massive, I think to start with I cried for a whole month. You are being suddenly faced with your own mortality, I have got a thirty percent chance of surviving five years.

"I am a single mum, my youngest is 24 and he does not need this happening to him. He is my principal carer and he is picking up so much, I need to make sure family members are there for my boys.

"I am on statutory sick pay, I am probably never going to work again."

The visual effects lecturer was originally diagnosed in January 2023 after being rushed to hospital because one of the tumours in her cervix ruptured. She then underwent an 'intensive' course of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brachytherapy which 'obliterated' the cancer cells in her cervix and abdomen.

Brachytherapy is an internal radiation treatment where rods are placed in the body to target tumours and it left Ms Pettitt bed-bound for four days. Her final treatment was in April 2023, since then she has had three-monthly scans to check for any recurrence and, sadly, in May this year cancerous lymph nodes were found in her chest.

Ms Pettitt said that because the cancer has metastasised she has only been offered radiotherapy and a one-off immunotherapy treatment on the NHS which would treat specific tumours but would not stop the cancer reoccurring.

This prompted her to do her own research into approved treatments used elsewhere in the world and she found dendritic cell therapy which is done in Germany and Switzerland.

Ms Pettitt has now launched a GoFundMe, which has already raised nearly £5,000, for her to travel to Germany and undergo this treatment with the hope of stopping or slowing the growth of her cancer.

"It is going to be my best shot at inhibiting the life of the cancer microbes," she said. "At least it means there is something rather than just waiting for the cancer to spread.

"I had to pick myself up off the floor and look at research papers. Now I have got a ray of hope, it might buy me some time."

Ms Pettitt also believes chances to catch her cancer earlier were missed when her GP surgery refused her request for a smear test. Nine months before her diagnosis she had requested a smear test but was told by the practice nurse that she wasn't due to have one for three years because over 50s are only offered a check every five years.

Changes to her discharge, a symptom of cervical cancer, were also put down to Ms Pettitt starting hormone replacement therapy for the menopause She wishes she had not been 'dissuaded' from having the smear test and called for all women to be checked every two years.

"[The practice nurse] said you do not need one for another three years," she explained. "I had been put on HRT so changes were put down to that, there was no erring on the side of caution.

"I allowed myself to be dissuaded, I completely accepted that and I should not have done. One of my girlfriends at the time said 'nobody asks for a smear test Jules'.

"For cervical cancer, considering there is so little treatment, smear tests should be compulsory every two years. Changing things, like making smear tests every five years was asking for trouble."