Doug Roberts and his  young daughters, Millie and Kirsty lost their cherished wife and special mother to Breast Cancer on the 27th June 2010 age 42 yrs after battling with the illness twice over….  

When Lisa’s boss, James heard about Lisa getting cancer and decided he wanted to do something positive, so he organised a sponsored cycle ride from Lands End to John O’Groats for The Forever Friends Appeal, a chosen charity by Lisa. Sadly, James was only two days into the ride when Lisa died, and so it is a great testament to him that he continued and completed the challenge raising a massive £5422 towards Lisa Tribute Fund which had been set up by us.  In October some of Lisa’s friends also raised money for the fund and ran in the Atlantic Challenge – 3 marathons in 3 days – along the coastal paths and hills of Cornwall. Despite the wet and stormy weather Max and her team were able to raise a staggering £3,171 to add to the fund, which we set up to benefit the Breast Unit at the RUH. 

Doug commented that One of the great things about the Forever Friends Appeal, and why  Lisa chose to support them before she died, is that you can target your donated funds to purchase specific bits of equipment that the hospital and the department of your choice really needs.   

With additional funds being contributed by friend and family at Lisas’s funeral the fund has grown to a staggering £12,507 in just a few months, we discussed in depth with appeal how to use the monies and agreed to help purchase an upgrade for the Ultrasound equipment in the Breast Unit, this being identified as one of their priorities as it will help with the diagnosis and therefore treatment of patients now and in the future.  ’The  upgrade will add another way of assessing breast tissue with something called elastograohy which test how compressible the tissue is – as cancers are less compressible than normal or non – cancerous tissue ’   

As a family we feel that everyone has helped make a real difference and to achieve something that we can all feel that Lisa’s untimely death will bring some benefit to others and perhaps ensure that other families do not have to suffer what we have”