Eleven months ago, Leslie Patterson was on top of the world.
The five-time world champion triathlete became the toast of Hollywood after her film, All Quiet on the Western Front, won four Oscars, including Best Foreign Film.
The World War I film won a record seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
But Ms Patterson’s Hollywood dreams came to a screeching halt late last year when her husband of 22 years, sports psychologist Dr Simon Marshall, was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
In an emotional post on Instagram, the couple, who moved to California to pursue their film dreams full-time, wrote: “2023 has been full of the biggest things, the best, the best. The worst of the worst.
“A BAFTA win, an Oscar nomination, an Oscar win…but unfortunately…Simon has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So in 2024, we face the biggest battle of our lives. .
“Please continue to give us that positive energy because we are going to need it.
Dr. Marshall continued, “Starting a new career, moving to Los Angeles, and now embarking on this incredible journey that we both go on in the movie…Even though terminal pancreatic cancer is never a good thing… “But we are going to overcome it, and I have done so.” I’ve got a world champion and a tremendous hustler on my side and things are going well on average. ”
Ms Patterson, 43, from Stirling, made global headlines when she said it took her 16 years to secure a deal to make the film based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel.
The book was made into a Hollywood film in 1930 and won the Best Picture Oscar.
Ms. Patterson was an actor and world-class athlete when she met her writing partner Ian Stokel and approached the Remarque estate to secure the rights to remake the film for a modern audience.
The triathlete used his winnings from a race in Costa Rica, which he competed in despite a broken shoulder, to buy the movie rights and spent 16 years making his dream a reality when Netflix agreed to make it into a movie. Invested over £5,000. German project.
The film, starring Daniel Brühl and Felix Kammerer, was a commercial and critical hit, prompting Patterson and her British husband (who they met while they were students at Loughborough University) to move to Los Angeles full-time. became.
A source said, “After winning the Oscar and British Academy Awards, they were on top of the world.” They finally realized their dream, they got an offer to make a movie, and everything looked rosy.
“Then in November last year, Simon was diagnosed with one of the worst forms of cancer possible.”
The two have set up a GoFundMe to raise $500,000 to fund the experimental treatment.
“Sometimes in life we are faced with unexpected obstacles and right now my husband Simon and I are facing the biggest challenge of our lives,” Leslie wrote on the GoFundMe site.
“Guided by the unwavering spirit that has defined our lives, we are determined to overcome this monumental challenge.
“Simon was about to begin a remarkable new chapter in his career when this diagnosis interrupted our plans and had a huge impact mentally, physically and financially.
“Although we are fortunate to have excellent insurance, the standard treatment options available for pancreatic cancer can be somewhat limited in their effectiveness. In our pursuit, we are exploring new treatments, therapies, and modalities.
These innovative approaches offer hope, but they come at great cost. In our pursuit of victory against this unrelenting enemy, we realized that we needed the support of our amazing community – our friends and family who have always supported us through thick and thin. ”
As of Friday night, the fund had reached $117,000.
