A terminally ill Perth mum who travelled across the country with her son to hear Coldplay perform a song sentimental to them both is stranded 4000km from home after she wound up in hospital.
Kim Stevens-Miller was struck down with gastro and mesenteric venous thrombosis, causing a dangerous blood clot in her abdomen, and never got to attend Thursday’s concert in Sydney.
She has been told it will be at least three months before she can fly safely on a commercial flight and her loved ones are now trying to organise a hire car for a daunting drive home across the Nullarbor.
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“I’m scared,” the mother of three, who has stage four metastatic breast cancer, told 7NEWS.com.au.
“I’m terminally ill and I’ve got a blood clot in my body that needs to be treated and monitored.”
Stevens-Miller and her son had travelled east for what was meant to be a short memory-making trip.
They hoped the highlight would be listening to Coldplay perform their track, The Scientist, live.
They landed in Sydney on the afternoon of November 4 but by the next morning, with the mother suffering agonising abdominal pain, an ambulance was called.
She was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital and spent several days, including her birthday, in isolation.
“I thought I’d be put on a drip, rehydrated and soon on my way,” she said.
But it “wasn’t looking great” and her husband jumped on the first flight to be by her side.
Doctors were concerned that operating could rupture the clot and cause a heart attack.
She was well enough to be discharged on Sunday, but her journey home will be far more difficult than the trip there.
While she had taken out travel insurance, she is not expecting it to be any help given the clotting is likely linked to her cancer.
Her family has scouted options to get her home, but a medical flight or charter plane that can fly at a safe altitude will be costly and beyond their financial means.
Train tickets have been difficult to organise too, leaving them “in limbo right now”.
‘Really important’
A hire car is the most likely option, allowing them to take a slow and steady approach that will balance her ongoing medical needs.
The long journey will feature regular stops so Stevens-Miller can move around and take her treatment – self-administered blood thinners to dissolve the clot and chemotherapy tablets for her cancer.
Devastated she missed the concert with her son, she said she could not wait three months to return home, especially with grandchildren due in December and January.
“I have to work out how to get home. These things for me are really important,” she said.
“I need to be with everyone as much as I can, while I can.”
An online fundraiser has been launched to help the couple cover the cost of the hire car, accommodation, and extra medical costs.
Stevens-Miller said she was overwhelmed and thankful for the donations that had come, many from complete strangers.