dads fight against brain cancer.

$1,660 donated
Given by 53 generous donors in around 4 months

My Dad was recently diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma as well as two large tumors in the brain. help make his last wish come true.

Southland

My Dad (Stewart Grumball) was diagnosed with malignant melanoma with metastatic spread on the 27th of January 2015. On the 2nd of February 2015 my Dad underwent surgery to fix a broken vertebra (that the tumour had crushed) and remove the cancerous tumour in his spine. The surgery was successful! But.. The surgeon and the oncologist confirmed that there is more than one tumour. Since then my Dad underwent a week of radiation therapy. A second visit to the oncologist brought some very sad news, Dad was told he will have between 3-12 months left with us. On the 2nd of April our family were informed that Dad has two large tumours in the centre of his brain, as well as several small ones. The 3-12 months was cut short, the doctor explained he will only have a couple short months left with us. So I am trying to fundraise a bit of money to make my dads last wish come true. My Mum and Dad have 7 children together and have been married 22 years. The 18 years I have been alive my parents have only had 1 week away from us all. My parents have never really had the chance to take time away as the were always to busy working, however due to Dads diagnosis both of my parents are no longer working and have to live of a government benefit. Myself and my siblings would love to send them away for a trip but we just don't have the money to do so. That is why I decided to try and seek some kind of help. Donating to this fund would mean a lot more than just a trip away. It would mean making a Mans final wish come true. Myself and the rest of my family would be very grateful/thankful for any donations.

Mikala grumball's involvement (page creator)

Stewart is my Dad, if I could make a wish for him personally it would be for more time. But we all know that isn't possible.

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Latest update

Treatment  23 April 2015

Hey everybody thank you so very much for your kind donations so far, my dad is going through to Dunedin this coming Tuesday for further radiation treatment, this time on his brain he will remain up there for 7 days while his treatment is being carried out. thought an update would be appropriate as we get closer toward his dream trip to the west coast. thank you.

So another update.. stew has finished his radiation treatments now and been referred to hospice for future care, not quite sure what that entails yet but will be finding out soon enough.

Thanks to you wonderful caring people out there, stew and I (Christine the wife) went for our little trip away together and spent a couple of wonderful days with stew's cousins place in Lawrence in central Otago..Cant thank you enough Louise and Johnny for our time with you guys. Then we took off to Cromwell and spent two nights the at the golden gate lodge, love that place. Weather was great and then we were going to head thru to Queenstown but it got so cold and the big snow was predicted so we decided to come home. So glad we did though cos the rain met us at Winton and it really just got worse as the day progressed on Saturday. Stew's health was very good whilst we were away, he had the odd snap at me but other than that he is doing well as can be expected in his condition.

Stew doing well and celebrated his 58th birthday last Thursday, and we had a awesome day in the end but the start of the day was not so great. Stew has his meds in blisters packs and so to make things a little easier for him I have a pill dispenser box to put each days tablets in....the Wednesday night prior to Stew's birthday was the state of origin game, which I watched. I got totally involved in a conversation with Tim after he got home from work at 1am, that I went straight to bed (without doing stew's pills for the next day). So wen he got up he did his pills himself and took the whole lot at once( morning tabs and evening tabs). But he actually couldn't remember taking both lots, so the hunt began. We needed to find them because of the risk to Isaak.(our 2yr old grandson). Tim finally found both empty pill pods in the recycle bin outside, thank goodness. So then rung hospice to confirm we had found that Stew had accidently taken both lots of pills and needed to know if he was in kinda trouble with taking so much morphine and his sleeping tab and all the other meds as well. But after the doc had been filled in on wat had happened she said he would be ok probably a little sleepy, thank goodness. my stress levels were really high that morning....Anyhu we were asked to go to stew's sister Katherine's place for a afternoon tea for stew's birthday.(He was very spoilt by his siblings btw) It was great and he enjoyed himself a great deal...being the centre of attention and it had nothing to do with his cancer. Abit later on we went to big willies for tea with the grown kids and their families...so was awesome that the grandies were there. Stew thoroughly enjoyed himself again and was a beautiful meal and the staff treated us so kindly...was really awesome.

Stew has had his steroid decreased down to one tab a day instead of two which is good cos he starting to puff up all over ...his head, his tummy, and his legs.

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Latest donations

Karen Wilson
Karen Wilson on 22 Jun 2015
$100
ben
ben on 10 Jun 2015
all the best for him. send my wishes.
$50
Guest Donor
Guest Donor on 27 May 2015
I remember when your mum and dad got married. All the best.
Private
Belinda Smith
Belinda Smith on 07 May 2015
$20
Regan Lemm
Regan Lemm on 06 May 2015
I am truly sorry about your Dad, I work with Tim and he is a good man. This must come from Stewart. I hope he has a good trip.
$12

Who's involved?

Christine Grumball's avatar
Paying to a verified bank account of Christine Grumball on behalf of Stewart Grumball
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This campaign started on 13 Mar 2015 and ended on 30 Jun 2015.