Cancer treatment for Dennis

Anybody who knows Dennis would describe him as larger than life. He has an incredibly generous heart and a wicked sense of humour. To us, his family, Dennis is a husband to Julie, a father of 5, a grandfather of 7 and our rock. Dennis is the first to put his hand up to help under any circumstance and would literally give the shirt off his back to someone in need.

Now Dennis needs a hand.

Dennis was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and has been battling the cancer for seven years. During this time Dennis has undergone numerous invasive therapies starting with surgery, then radiotherapy, followed by multiple hormone therapies and most recently chemotherapy.

Unfortunately the cancer is no longer responding to the chemotherapy, which was the last funded medical option.

Dennis now has stage four prostate cancer. One final option to keep Dennis with us is to try Keytruda, a breakthrough cancer therapy that utilizes the body’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells. Keytruda has been shown to not only extend life expectancy but also improve quality of life, for people with Dennis’ type of cancer. However this therapy is currently only funded for people with skin and lung cancer. For people with prostate cancer Keytruda comes with a hefty price-tag, which is not a financial burden that could be realistically shouldered by Dennis and Julie.

Over the past few years our parents have had a run of bad luck. 6 years ago they decided to invest in their future and put everything into building their own home. However they have faced ongoing issues with land subsidence, which compromised their house foundations and consequently placed them under immense financial strain and emotional pressure. Despite the physical toll that the cancer has placed on Dennis, he is still working full time in order to repair their damaged home.

We are setting up this page to make keytruda treatment possible for Dennis.

As his family we hope to raise the funds for Dennis, who by nature would never ask for help himself.