My 68 year old mother-in-law lives in the UK. Her son and I live in Australia with our children. She is battling cancer but will not discuss it. We have no idea how serious it is, if she is terminal or likely to recover. Travelling to and from Australia to the UK makes the whole thing more difficult. If she’s likely got quite a few years left in her, we’re looking at a move to the UK – for no other reason but to be with her until she dies, then we would move back to Australia. Uprooting our family to move to the UK is a huge commitment and I don’t want to put our family through it if our time there before she dies is knowingly going to be very short. 

Here is what we know. She was diagnosed with bowel cancer (unknown what stage) in 2012, had a portion of her bowel removed and two rounds of treatment. She has since had cancer in one lung (part lung removed) and liver (60% removed). She currently has masses in both lungs, one of which can’t be operated on because of the previous surgery. She also has cancer in her “back” (unsure of if this is spinal or not). We don’t know which cancers are as a result of the bowel cancer spreading or independent cancers or if she is responding to her latest treatment.

I know this question gets asked a lot and I know there aren’t definitive answers but I need any advice I can get. Based on the above, what’s her likely prognosis? is death imminent? Are we looking at 0-5 years, 5-10 years, is there much chance she’ll live to a ripe old age? We don’t have a doctor we can ask or anyone to help us understand what we’re really dealing with.

Thank you in advance for your guidance.