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A cancer stricken teen has pleaded for donations to save her life saying: “It’s so sad that my life is being put on a number.”

Shauntelle Tynan, aged 18, was diagnosed with multi-system Langheran’s cell histiocytosis in May 2015 - a complex form of cancer so rare, there is only one specialist doctor in the world able to treat it.

She needs $527,000 (€497,000) to fund a year’s worth of life-saving treatment from the doctor who is based in the US.

Time is running out to raise the minimum of $350,000 (€330,000) needed before her care is set to begin on March 29.

The teenager, from Co Carlow said: “I really need to raise this money because I don’t want to die. There’s not really much more to say, that’s how it is at the moment.

“It’s just crazy that my life is literally put on this number and how much money we need to make.

“It’s hard to know if I really will get there. It seems impossible to raise the money, but we really need to raise it.”

Shauntelle has been getting life-saving treatment from Dr Kenneth McClain for over the last year but that hasn’t halted the disease.

Instead it has spread to her intestines, colon, skin, stomach and brain.

He has told her she needs to go to the Texas Children’s Hospital for a year of continuous care or she might not make it.

In a video posted at the weekend, the teenager broke down in tears at having to beg for her life.

She said: “This is the most important video I have ever had to make and I never thought I would have to make it.

“Recently we have learned that we’re going to have to move to Texas for at least a year, that’s me on my own, that’s not my family, that’s me.

“That’s because the cancer has just gotten so out of control. When it started off I had cancer in my ears, my skin and my Pituitary Gland in my brain.

"Now it’s all throughout my gastrointestinal area. It’s in my colon, it’s in my skin it’s in my stomach. It’s given me really bad side effects. The doctors in Texas have told me if I don’t come for at least 12 months then they don’t have a great chance of helping me survive.”

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Shontelle’s mother Leona cares for her daughter full-time.

She has been trying to get funding from HSE but has been rejected by the HSE’s Treatment Abroad Scheme because the care Shontelle needs is outside of Europe.

Leona said: "It’s very difficult. We try to put positivity out into the world but when it gets to crazy amounts of money, everything boils down to that and you can not even envisage how much that is because it’s just such a huge amount.”

Shauntelle will travel back to Texas on her own and her family will take it in turns to spend time with her so six-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother can stay at home and go to school.

Leona said this care will give her the best chance at survival, while a drug trial in the summer could put her into remission. But she will need to be in America to take part.

Shauntelle, who has had five failed rounds of chemo, said: “Of course travelling to Texas comes with a huge price. It always has. We always seem to get there as we have amazing support.

“We’ve been emailing my government to get them to help us with costs because if you fly outside of Europe, they don’t help with medical costs.

I just think it’s ridiculous, 350,000 is nothing to our government, it doesn’t mean anything to our government and this is my life.

I’m an Irish citizen and I just wish they’d help. It’s so sad that my life is being put on a number and how much money we need to make.

“My life just shouldn’t be like this.”

Click here to donate online via Shauntelle's GoFundMe page.