Rochdale mum's plea to give hope to other families like hers

A Rochdale cancer survivor is backing a Cancer Research UK campaign to help give hope to future generations.  

Maria Lawal was a young athlete in training when a ‘muscle strain’ in her leg lead to a life-changing cancer diagnosis.

She went from playing sport most days after school to scheduling her life around surgery and chemotherapy sessions, after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma - a form of bone cancer - in 2008, when she was just 15.  

Now 28 and fit and well, Maria, who runs a business making wigs for chemotherapy patients, says she owes her life to improved treatments and is determined to help more people like her survive.

That’s why she’s urging people across Greater Manchester to give regularly to Cancer Research UK to help fund long-term research projects that could drive new breakthroughs. 

Life-saving cancer treatments are made by months and months of trialling, testing and learning. But monthly progress in research, needs monthly donations. 

By sharing her story, Maria hopes to inspire others to play a part in the fight against the disease. With around 43,600 people diagnosed with cancer every year in the North West, Maria’s message is clear – to save lives tomorrow, Cancer Research UK needs the public’s support today.  

She said: “If it wasn’t for the research I wouldn’t be here today. I set myself up as a regular giver to Cancer Research UK as soon as I was earning my own money so that I could give something back. I like helping in my own little way, it feels good, and I know I am helping someone else like me have a new lease of life. I can’t physically make a wig for everyone in the world, as much as I would love to, but I think of regular giving as my way of doing something for everyone.”

Maria had just turned 15 when she started getting an intermittent pain in her left thigh which was initially thought to be a sporting injury picked up during basketball training.

But one day the teenager, who grew up in Manchester, discovered a lump and when the pain became too much to bear her family took her to A&E.

Sadly, a scan found a tumour and in February 2008 Maria was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.

Shortly after her diagnosis, Nigerian-born Maria had surgery to remove the bone from her hip down to below her knee, which was replaced with a titanium prosthesis.

She received chemotherapy for eight months, but unfortunately 18 months later, during a routine check-up, doctors found tumours in her lungs. 

Maria, who now lives with her husband and 18-month-old son in Rochdale, said: “I was so shocked when they told 15-year-old me that I had cancer. I was the first person in my family to have cancer and I couldn’t understand why it had happened to me when I was young and so fit and healthy. Battling through this hard time at such a young age tested my family and me so much. Thankfully I pulled through only to find out, I relapsed again in both lungs 18 months later. I couldn’t believe I had to find the strength and courage again from nowhere to go through it all again. It was far from easy, and my dreams of being an athlete were over, but I was determined not to give up on myself and not let my family down after everything we’d been through. Thankfully with having the chemo and more surgery to remove the remaining tumours I won the battle for the second time.”

Since going into remission Maria has spent much of her adult life working as a patient advocate helping other cancer patients like her and she is passionate about raising awareness.

Following her own experience Maria set up a business making wigs in a wide variety of colours for women and girls like her who had lost their hair due to cancer treatments.

The entrepreneur also began offering makeup tutorials for women whose skin had been affected during chemotherapy and recently she even wrote her first children’s book.

 

 

Maria said: “I still wear my wigs; I love having a choice of colour each day. I started making them so that women and girls like me felt they had a better choice and to help them to feel good inside and out. I wanted girls to look in the mirror and feel like themselves and not like a cancer patient in a wig. And it was the same with the makeup lessons, my skin was so dark during chemo, it was so different to my normal skin and I know many girls and women struggle with how to wear makeup when their skin is going through these changes. Then after having my son Zyon I felt compelled to write a book containing the positive mindset mantras that I believe helped me though my cancer journey. My book is about building confidence from a young age and I read it to my son every day.

“If I had been diagnosed with cancer twenty years ago, the outcome might not have been the same for me and that’s down to research. Thanks to research I have been able to grow up and get married and have a family. By making a monthly donation to Cancer Research UK, people across Greater Manchester could help give hope to many more families like mine and invest in long term research that could save lives for generations to come.”

Thanks to the generosity of its supporters, Cancer Research UK was able to spend around £29 million in the North West last year on some of the UK’s leading scientific and clinical research.  

While 2022 marks the charity’s 20th anniversary, its history dates back to the founding of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1902. During this time, its work has led to more than 50 cancer drugs used across the UK - and around the world - from widely used chemotherapies to new-generation precision treatments.  

In fact, drugs linked to the charity are used to treat more than 125,000 patients in the UK every year – that’s 3 out of every 4 patients who receive cancer drugs on the NHS.  

Cancer Research UK spokesperson for the North West, Jemma Humphreys, said: “One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, but all of us can help beat it. As we mark our 20th anniversary, we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come thanks to supporters like Maria. From proving the link between smoking and cancer to laying the foundations for modern radiotherapy, our scientists have been at the forefront of cancer research for 120 years. And we’re not stopping now. 

“Monthly donations make a huge difference to advances such as this, because they allow us to plan for the future - and the more we can plan, the more projects we can fund to unlock more of cancer’s secrets. So, we hope people will give regularly to the charity, if they can.  

“We’re working towards a world where we can all live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer. Beating the disease is a long game, but it’s one that – together - we will win.”  

Donate monthly to Cancer Research UK at cruk.org/donate