A PRENTON mum battling an incurable and aggressive form of brain cancer is aiming to give others hope by sharing her experiences with the world.

Following the discovery of her tumour in August 2013, Julie Shute was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme and given a life expectancy of around 14 months.

But while the devastating news would make some want to lock themselves away and feel sorry for themselves, this was not the case for 53-year-old Julie and her husband Andy.

Through endless fundraising and countless trips to Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, the couple have carried on the best they can, choosing to share the highs and lows with others on Julie’s online blog.

“We need to make people realise there is hope and treatments aren’t too frightening either,” explained mother-of-two Julie.

“We’ve also learnt as we’ve gone along and we’ve found ways to adapt, we feel the more information patients and families have, the smoother their journey will be.”

Within a month, Julie and 58-year-old Andy have published 12 blog posts, trying as much as possible to inject humour into a story that will often have you reaching for the tissue box.

It covers Julie's initial diagnosis, what followed, as well as posts from Andy's point of view.

Julie said: “We’re overwhelmed by how popular it has become, it’s still in its infancy but there have been more than 6,000 page views already. Feedback has been incredibly kind and we’ve heard of people that it has helped already.”

So far, Julie and Andy have been involved in contributing around £6,000 to the Wirral-based charity, thanks to craft making, bucket collections and £4,000 raised by Andy’s brother, who owns a bar in Taiwan.

“Over the last year, although times have been hard, we’ve had tremendous support from friends and family and the amazing Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and their dedicated fundraising charity team,” said Julie, who was diagnosed with a second brain tumour in August, 2014.

“Andy and I are forever grateful for the treatment and kindness. We both felt we needed to repay that kindness by involving our family in raising vital funds for Clatterbridge.”

Despite the difficult time they face, the Shute’s help is extending beyond financial support for Clatterbridge.

“With such a terminal diagnosis we’ve done an incredible amount of research into different treatments, even looking at and discussing drug trials with Julie’s team,” explained Andy.

“It fast became apparent that there is a lot of mystery and lack of understanding of treatments and options, even standard treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy hold a lot of mystery for some and are downright scary for others.

“We asked ourselves what if Julie had been a single or more elderly person with no immediate support and we realised despite the amazing doctors, nurses and radiographers, their time is limited.

“We also realised that unless you’ve walked this path of treatment it can be very scary.”

After researching a treatment called “Novalis Tx2 – often referred to as “Cyber Knife” technology – Julie and Andy decided to give it a go.

The Clatterbridge Centre was the first in England to have the technology and although it is not suitable for all tumour treatments, it was for Julie.

Andy explained: “There is no actual surgery, it is all done by treatment rays and it takes around 20 minutes compared to conventional surgery of up to six hours, and you get to go home on the same day.”

Julie’s treatment has since been filmed, with the video currently being edited for viewing in early 2015.

Andy added: “We so hope this helps other patients and reassures their families too.”