Alistair's Challenge: Stop His Melanoma Progressing

Alistair has always loved life, adventure and challenges. Whether it was the challenge of competing with his brother for the record of the most continuous ascents and descents of Mt Taranaki, or running another ultra marathon, Alistair's drive and determination allowed him to succeed. Now Alistair is facing a challenge of a different kind.

Alistair's story started at the age of 58, in 2015 when he was diagnosed with Melanoma which quickly progressed to the serious 4th stage Melanoma. He qualified initially for state-funded Opdivo immunotherapy and responded well, until his condition began to deteriorate. Alistair's lifeline now is the new drug Cotellic Zeboraf, which is self-funded ($10,000 per month). His specialists tell him that running in the mountains has given him 'racehorse' heart and lungs but he'll need our help to climb this mountain. As an ultra-distance runner and lover of trail running, Alistair competed in the Western States 100 mile run across the Sierra Nevada in 1991.

Having received a hip replacement in later years he has helped many hip-runners around the world to maintain their lifestyles by writing a blog and producing an ebook "How to Run with a Hip Replacement".

If the name 'Alistair McAlpine' sounds familiar, you may have heard it during his 30 years' service to Public Radio; presenting RNZ programmes like 'Country Life' or 'Spectrum' documentaries. Back-stage Alistair won multiple NZ and Australasian awards for his Recording Engineer Prowess.

Alistair and Margie have strong family values and have raised 3 boys who are now wonderful adults. Throughout these tough times Alistair's quick wit and sense of humour have prevailed. He has always had a terrific sense of fun and family always comes first. He has an extremely positive attitude and hopes to be able to continue planning more adventures. As you can imagine, finding $10,000 per month is a huge financial burden. Any help, however small will be greatly appreciated by the family.