A student was given an ‘almost impossible’ cancer diagnosis, but her final heartfelt wish was granted before she passed way.

Alexandra Angeles Caycho was a 21-year-old graduate at Lancaster University studying Fine Art and Design. She was given the heartbreaking diagnosis of stage three pancreatic cancer, while she thought she was suffering from a rugby injury, in March 2023.

Just this summer, doctors said she only had ‘days to weeks left to live’, and her and her friends started a GoFundMe to fund her final wish, which she explained on the page.

Alex explained that one day, her bowel movements changed and things started to get ‘weird’, as her health worsened over time.

Her eyes would turn yellow and she couldn’t sit for long, leading her to go to A&E, where health experts told her that there was a possible issue with her liver.

After being told her cancer had developed to stage four, the student was then sent to Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool where she revealed: “The doctors were shocked; they told me it was almost impossible for someone my age to have this disease.”

Despite this obstacle, Alex graduated from university this year and even planned to do a masters degree.

She decided to spend time at home with her mum, Linda and her boyfriend Dylan and when she returned for chemotherapy soon after, the process was stopped when she threw up blood.

After being put back in the ward, she was told that she had internal bleeding from the cancer and there wasn’t much that anyone could do.

“I’ve tried to stay strong and to keep fighting with everything I have, but unfortunately my journey is coming to an end.”

At the time, she added: “I’m too tired most days to do anything; I suffer with swelling, the swelling has got so bad I have gained ten kilos of fluid and my body is too weak to deal with that immense weight gain. I suffer from back pain. Most days I spend my time in bed trying to eat and drink water if I can.”

Alex’s boyfriend, Dylan, helped to set up the fundraising page (GoFundMe)

Amid all the pain, she had one last wish before she passed away, which was the original purpose behind the GoFundMe page – she wanted to go back home one last time.

Not her house in the UK, but her home country of Peru, as she explained: “My last wish is to return to Peru, to be with my family in the place where I grew up, where I have so many happy memories.”

But because of her condition, she needed to travel with specialised medical equipment and doctors by her side during the journey.

“This is why I’m reaching out to you all, asking for your help. The cost of a private jet and the medical care I need during the flight is far beyond anything my family and I can afford,” she shared, with an amount of £150,000 required.

And earlier this month, her wish came true, arriving safely in Peru after a number of several flights with the required medical assistance to spend her final moments with her family.

There, she got to see her dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles once again, spending her final moments in a place where she ‘feels at peace’.

Her fundraiser went well above the necessary £150,000, with it sitting at £165,000 at the time of writing.

Alex managed to spend her final days around her loved ones (GoFundMe)

A further update explained that fuel consumption may be higher than previously thought as the plane may need to fly at a lower altitude and have more stops along the way due to her condition.

The goal was raised to £200,000 for these reasons and to cover things such as the funeral, but she made it home without the fund hitting the new target, as Dylan posted on the GoFundMe page that week: “I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for the amazing support that helped get Alex back to Peru. Your generous donations made this possible, and we’re incredibly grateful.”

Sadly, on 14 September, he posted the sad news: “Struggling to put it into words, Alex passed away at 12 30 am local time on the 14th September with loved ones by her side. Alex’s family and close friends ask for privacy at this moment in time.”

Feel free to donate to Alex’s GoFundMe here.

A mum says doctors thought she could have ‘parasitic worms’ in her neck, only to be given a devastating diagnosis later on.

Francesca Knee-Wright, from Brighton, had only given birth to her second child three months before she noticed a ‘very small’ lump on her neck.

Putting it down to her body changing after pregnancy, the 34-year-old said she gave her GP a call only to be told the lump was ‘probably just a gland’ and to ring back in a couple of weeks.

After a few weeks passed, Francesca found two more lumps so went to the doctors to get them checked out.

At first, she said her doctor thought the lumps in her neck could be ‘parasitic worms’, passed on from her two adopted ‘street cats‘ from Spain. These worms are essentially parasites that infect the large intestine.

However, Francesca was left stunned when an ultrasound revealed a total of nine lumps in her neck and she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in August.

According to the NHS, Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a relatively aggressive form of blood cancer that can quickly spread through the body.

“I went to the gym a lot and had a baby and thought my body was going through so much change. It was hard for me to know what is normal with the baby,” the mother-of-two said.

At first, doctors reportedly thought the lumps in her neck could be ‘parasitic worms’ from her adopted ‘street cats’ (Kennedy News and Media)

“I lost quite a lot of weight, but I didn’t know if it was because I just had a baby and was breastfeeding or if I was doing really well at the gym.

“I didn’t know it meant I was ill. You just think it could be anything, you don’t think it’s going to be cancer.

“If I hadn’t found another one I would have definitely forgotten about it. Life is busy, and it was a very small lump.”

Francesca added: “It can be intimidating to question a doctor’s authority. I’m lucky that I’m the kind of person to say, ‘I think I need to see someone in person about this’.

“You just never know. I would hate for someone to be in the same position as me and just forget about it. I’m happy to speak up for myself and speak up for things that don’t feel right.

The mum, from Brighton, is set to undergo chemotherapy (Kennedy News and Media)

“I had to stop breastfeeding my baby much earlier than I intended to. It completely changed how I wanted to parent my children.

“They said that my hair would fall so suddenly and I was scared my kids would go to hug me and a strand from my hair would fall out.

“Can you imagine the trauma of my kids hugging me and my hair suddenly falling?

“As a mum I can’t imagine what it would be like for my child to go through something like that, losing all their hair and navigating life.”

Francesca decided to ‘take back control’ by shaving her hair before it fell out due to chemotherapy in order to raise funds for UK-based charity Little Princess Trust.

You can donate to her GoFundMe here.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.

Drake has changed the life of a woman who had just finished chemotherapy before attending one of his concerts.

The Canadian rapper was performing in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday night (7 February) when he made the show-stopping gesture.

Earlier parts of Drake’s It’s All A Blur – Big As The What? Tour, were dominated with the trend of women throwing up bigger and bigger bras on to the stage.

But with that seemingly over now, this generous donation to a fan is much more wholesome. Watch here:

And she almost didn’t even go.

Earlier that day, Lauren Schwallier had spent five hours at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre for bone and CT scans.

The 33-year-old recently finished her last round of chemo after being diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2022.

But luckily, she ended up deciding to go to the concert that night, very much changing her life.

Part-way though his show, after finishing ‘God’s Plan’, Drake began a sentimental speech about making your neighbour’s day and asked the crowd to join in.

He wanted the audience to turn to someone they didn’t know and give them a hug.

After asking: “Where’s the love, Nashville?” Drake showed some love himself.

Schwallier was stood in a pit right near the stage, holding up a sign reading: “Just Finished Chemo.”

Wanting to help her get noticed by the ‘One Dance’ rapper, fans near her shone their touches as he said: “I see everybody pointing to this sign and I can’t miss it.

“So, bring her to the front real quick. ‘Cause this is an important moment.”

The mum’s sign was shown on the big screens as Drake continued: “”Listen, forget Drake, forget anybody else in the building right now. That’s a true soldier right there.”

Then, handing her a big receipt, he said: “I hope my manager doesn’t kill me ’cause I’ve never really done this much, but, listen, I want you to cash this in at the end of the night.

“We’re gonna give you $100,000.”

Instagram/@liketoknowlauren

The crowd erupted in response as the rapper concluded: “I love you and I wish you the best. Nashville, make some noise for her one more time.”

Schwallier told The Tennessean: “One thing led to another and I was at the front of the stage and Drake blew me a kiss and told me that he loved me!

“That’s all I was focused on… and then just like the money on top of it is just insane.”

She’s since gone viral on Instagram, where she says she’s ‘still in shock’.

Schwallier’s in communication with the star’s team and is said to get the details of his mega gift next week.

The mum is now waiting for her scan results so she can find out if she is cancer-free.

Experts had to do a double – or should I say triple – take after realising a 78-year-old patient had lived his entire life without clocking onto the fact that he had two more penises than he’s supposed to.

Somehow, the British bloke got through nearly eight decades on this earth while being completely oblivious to the fact that he could have really outshined other lads in the trouser department.

It was only when the man died and donated his body to medical science that it was discovered he had a hat trick hidden in his private region.

Students at the University of Birmingham Medical School were dissecting the pensioner’s body when they spotted his ‘remarkable anatomical variation’, which has only ever been recorded once before.

It is believed that the fella went through his whole life without being aware of just how well endowed he really was.

The case, which was published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports last week, explained that experts subsequently diagnosed the man with the ultra-rare birth defect triphallia, which essentially means ‘triple penis’.

Diphallia refers to a duplicate penis, which in itself is uncommon and thought to affect just one in every five to six million people, but triphallia is practically unheard of, according to experts.

The only other case of it which has been documented was in 2020 and involved a newborn baby in Iraq.

Triphallia is extremely rare and only one other case has been recorded until now (Getty Stock Photo)

This patient, who was described as a 6ft tall white male, appeared to have normal genitalia when medical students conducted an external examination.

But after they began dissecting the corpse, they made a shocking discovery.

The authors of the case explained that they found ‘two small supernumerary penises stacked in a sagittal orientation posteroinferiorly to the primary penis’ which were ‘concealed within the scrotal sac’.

Each penile shaft had its own corpora cavernosa and glans penis, but the primary and secondary penis shared a urethra which then ‘coursed through the secondary penis prior to its passage through the primary penis’.

According to the report, the smallest supernumerary penis didn’t have a urethra-like structure.

Experts offered up an explanation for the bizarre situation, detailing how the early phase of genital development in the womb kicks off somewhere between four and seven weeks into gestation.

Boffins explained that the penis then ‘develops from the genital tubercule’, which is controlled by the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

The case study explains: “Genetic abnormalities affecting the expression of androgen receptors may cause morphological genital abnormalities. In this case, there may have been triplication of the genital tubercle.

The 78-year-old is believed to have died without knowing that he had the birth defect (Journal of Medical Case Reports)

“The urethra originally developed in the secondary penis, however, when this penis failed to develop, the urethra diverted its course and developed in the primary penis instead,” it continued.

“The tertiary penis is a remnant of the triplicated genital tubercle.”

The researchers noted that those who have multiple penises are at increased risk of contracting urinary tract infections as well as experiencing sexual dysfunction, obstructive urinary symptoms and urinary incontinence in adulthood.

Doctors will typically remove the additional penises when they encounter this birth defect, although it appears as though the 78-year-old had no clue he had two down there due to it’s ‘normal’ appearance externally.

The report added: “We cannot be certain that in this case the defect remained unnoticed in life, as there is a history of inguinal hernia repair.

“Due to the tortuous nature of the urethra, a urinary catheter would have proved challenging to pass.

“If the defect had been noticed during his life, it may have simply been left untouched due to the apparent lack of symptoms and its benign nature.”

But seing as though they stumbled across the triphallia discovery by sheer chance, they reckon that the case could indicate that this common might be a lot more common than was previously thought.

The study concluded: “Without any symptoms and additional medical needs, concealed internal penises may not present themselves, preventing diagnosis. Hence, polyphallia may be more prevalent than currently understood.

“It is of clinical importance for healthcare providers to be aware of polyphallia for the diagnosis of patients presenting with urological symptoms and for healthcare interventions, such as simple catheter insertion, urological imaging and surgery.”