Urgent plea from 25yo with 10 per cent chance of living 18 months

A young woman has an urgent message for Aussies after she’s left with just a 10 per cent chance of living the next 18 months.

A young woman has an urgent message for Aussies after she’s left with just a 10 per cent chance of living the next 18 months.

Tayla Firkin, now 25, started experiencing shoulder pain and had a fainting episode in January 2020, getting an X-ray on her shoulder.

“It was on and off for several months, where I couldn’t go out and swim or surf. I’d be at work and I’d fall asleep on my breaks,” Tayla told news.com.au.

“At night time, it would get so much worse and there would be a rough pain. It felt like a persistent dislocation.”

It was initially put down as a work-related pain but after pushing with five different GPs over several months, Tayla had a different answer.

Days after her 22nd birthday, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma — a rare and aggressive type of bone cancer typically found in kids.

Tayla Firkin has Ewing's Sarcoma – a kind of bone cancer – for the second time. Picture: GoFundMe.

“I was sitting in a chair, and I had an ultrasound done. Ultrasounds don’t pick up bone cancer but bone cancer spreads to soft tissue once it’s grown,” she said.

“They were doing a soft tissue scan and said it didn’t look quite right. At that point, I called my dad. I said, ‘Dad, I studied science. I don’t think that’s good’.”

A GP appointment confirmed Tayla’s bad feeling, that she had cancer. Straight away her world was turned upside down.

“I had 14 tumours and two spine fractures. They gave me a 5-10 per cent chance. I had to do a year of treatment, this chemotherapy called VAC—IE and radiation,” she said.

After that course of treatment, doctors found no evidence of disease in Tayla’s body and for two years she was living life as normally as she could — joking it was essentially a part time job to visit GPs during this time.

She was having regular scans to check if there were signs of the cancer. Picture: GoFundMe.

She said it was an unseen reality of having cancer, the long and short term effects of the treatment. She was getting bloods, seeing an endocrinologist and gynaecologist regularly.

Tayla said she felt so lucky to make it through this first line treatment, as many don’t.

But, Ewing’s Sarcoma has a high relapse rate. Tayla was getting regular scans at Mermaid Radiology — a private practice — and a doctor found something he suspected was the cancer again in her hip in March 2024.

He presented it to her oncologist in the public system, but it came back as a negative biopsy. For seven months, they were pushing for another biopsy and it was discovered that the radiologist’s suspicions were correct.

She said if it wasn’t for the doctor and her father, she wouldn’t know she had relapsed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, this time in her pelvis and spine — a whopping seven centimetres in size.

“My family and friends are the best support in the whole world. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” she said.

“I am OK right now, on the phone call. I think I can talk about it right now but when I’m on my own — I don’t want to have a five to 10 per cent chance of survival for the next year and a half.

She has a 10 per cent chance of making it past the 18 month mark. Picture: GoFundMe.

Tayla's brother set up a GoFundMe. Picture: GoFundMe.

“I want to be here. I want to live. I wish there was a cure. I wish there was a way for me to know I had an 80 per cent chance or a 50 per cent chance. I’d feel like the luckiest person in the world to have that.”

But, the reality for Tayla is that her body has had too many toxins from the first round of treatments she had, so she can’t do that again. So, instead, she is doing everything she can to find something that could help her — including looking into trials.

Currently, she is in Melbourne seeking a second opinion at a hospital there for pain management. But, overall, she is doing her best to make a connection with any specialist she can to prolong her life.

To help, Tayla’s older brother Jesse has created a GoFundMe to help finance not only other treatment options but also help Tayla make the most of her time.

Tayla is trying to make the most of life. Picture: GoFundMe.

Tayla described the move as just as daunting as having a diagnosis, scared of worrying the people in her life and the dynamics changing because of her cancer. But, in reality, it’s just brought her a plethora of support that has overwhelmed her in the best possible way.

“I did not know it would be like that. I am so beyond grateful, because everyone wants to help in any way that they can — whether that is a share, a like, a word to someone they know or a donation,” she said.

Tayla said for the last month it has been hard to find joy in hospital rooms, but she loves absolutely everything. She and her partner organise game nights with family and friends.

“My partner and I, we are big kids. We want to hang out with our friends and family, whether that’s being outside in the sunshine, going to the beach, watching basketball or AFL, doing games nights with our friends — that’s a big one,” she said.

And is looking for alternative options. Picture: GoFundMe.

“Trying to watch a movie with some popcorn and snacks and chocolate. Anything that we try and do that is normal and comforting.”

Tayla wants the biggest message from her story to be two things. One, value every moment of your life. Even if it’s the small, joyous things in life — like a movie night. And, two, if something doesn’t feel right — get it checked. She joked that she’s said it to absolutely everyone she knows in the last few weeks, but she said it is so important to listen to your body and advocate for yourself.

If you’d like to know more about Tayla’s journey, please check out the family’s GoFundMe