Sunshine Coast mum Caley Ashpole’s GoFundMe plea amid cancer battle

A Sunshine Coast mum-of-two should have been ready to celebrate Christmas with her family. Instead, she was getting the worst news of her life. HOW YOU CAN HELP.

Caley Ashpole and family

Caley Ashpole’s life changed forever on Christmas Eve, 2024.

The 40-year-old mum, her husband Brad, and their two sons Ike, 12, and Moss, 10, should have been gearing up for the biggest day of the year, but instead she learnt she was facing the biggest battle of her life.

That fateful day, the family received a phone call from her GP telling her she had breast cancer.

The cancer is aggressive, incurable and terminal.

Ms Ashpole and her husband have been together for 14 years, and the family has lived on the Sunshine Coast for a decade.

During Covid, the family moved to Mount Isa and the regional outback as Mr Ashpole’s business was affected by the pandemic.

They took the financial risk to move back to the more expensive housing market of the Sunshine Coast in September of last year.

Not two months later, Ms Ashpole found a lump in her breast.

Caley Ashpole

“I went to the doctor immediately and they told me I had stage two cancer,” she said.

They pushed forward with further testing, managing to see their old doctor a week before Christmas after many places were fully booked.

The doctor called Ms Ashpole on Christmas Eve to give her the bad news.

The cancer had metastasised to her bones, including her spine, and was malignant.

“At that stage we didn’t know it was terminal yet, but it was extremely hard,” she said.

“There were lots of tears, lots of trying to hide that from the kids and not ruin their Christmas.”

In further testing, bone scans brought the unwelcome news that the cancer was terminal.

Specialists came up with a treatment plan, which can only slow the rate of progression.

“I’m going to give all their options a go until they stop working and then I’ll be looking at overseas treatments.”

These options are expensive though for a family, especially with her goal to be with her family as long as possible.

The timeframe she has been given entirely depends on how her body responds to treatment, so she could have months or years left.

With her current chemo and immunotherapy treatment, Ms Ashpole is left unable to work.

Caley Ashpole.

“I’ve been a provider for the family and now I’m struggling to make those ends meet, and I just want to be with my boys as much as possible,” she said.

“I don’t want them to have memories of me not here in these days.

“Balancing the time with family and the treatment is an emotional juggle that you have to adapt to every day.

“One minute you may be emotional, crying and grieving your life and the next minute you have to be happy and outgoing to make sure your kids are living that life with you.”

Her two children do not know their mother is terminally ill.

“They just know the basics that mum is sick and we don’t want to give them that anxiety and we want them to have a childhood,” she said.

Ms Ashpole feels torn, with no one to ask what the best course of action is or how to manage the situation.

“I don’t know anyone else with terminal cancer and kids who I can ask, how did you do it?” she said.

“If the cancer does kill me, what memories have I made with the boys?

“Have I done enough things and spent enough time with them and passed on a legacy for them?”

Caley Ashpole

The decision to go public with these struggles was born out of desperate necessity.

“We are struggling to make ends meet with my loss of income, and that stress puts stress on my body which can accelerate the cancer,” she said.

The treatments alone “come at a steep cost”.

The GoFundMe to help the Ashpole family can be found here.

“Every dollar donated will go directly toward giving me more time with Brad and our boys,” she said.

“To be here for more birthdays. More beach walks. More family dinners. More life, but I can’t do it alone.”

Originally published as Sunshine Coast mum Caley Ashpole’s GoFundMe plea amid cancer battle