EMMA'S FIGHT FOR LIFE - Urgent Help Needed to Fund Offshore Cancer Treatment
Help Emma & George fight their biggest fight yet, with funding needed to support urgent life extending cancer treatment offshore.
Wanaka, Otago
The idea of mortality is a strange thing to process at 30. Unimaginable for most, but something our sister Emma Holden had to confront in 2019.
For over 5 years, Emma has been privately battling an incurable blood cancer; Multiple Myeloma. Most wouldn’t know she has this, despite countless treatments & setbacks, she doesn’t complain & refuses to be defined by cancer. She just gets on & does it.
THE URGENCY
Emma is in Dunedin Hospital undergoing intensive chemotherapy to buy more time for the medical team to navigate the steps offshore treatment. Hence the urgency around your support.
EMMA'S JOURNEY
Emma sits in the 1% of myeloma patients being diagnosed so young at 30. This was particularly devastating as we also lost our Dad, Tom to cancer at age 46.
She has undergone continuous treatment travelling between various hospitals; Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch & Dunedin
- Several rounds of chemotherapy & radiation
- Autologous Stem Cell Transplant
- Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant
- 2x Clinical Trials for new-age treatments
- Surgery’s
Plus everything that comes with myeloma; fractures, pneumonia, shingles, list goes on
Despite the above she sets an example we could learn from; life's precious, unpredictable & she lives like everyday is a gift, not a given right.
HOW TO HELP
If you know Emma & George, you’ll know that asking for help doesn’t come easily to them. This page represents a deeply private battle made public. This is their biggest fight yet. EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS
James Holden's involvement (page creator)
Emma is our oldest sister along with George her husband & our brother-in-law.
Use of funds
They need to IMMEDIATELY fund upwards of a whopping $400,000 for OVERSEAS TREATMENT (in China). This is her best chance at prolonging this disease and extending her time with us all.
Latest update
Good News!! Emma is in Shanghai & Treatment is Underway 27 March 2025
Hey team, Ni Hao!
Great news to share, Emma made it to Shanghai (all thanks to you) to start Car T Therapy. She ended up needing to be on treatment pretty urgently so it all happened quite quickly in the end. The medical team there are a bunch of legends, helping her settle into her new life in China and have obviously been a huge help bedside during part 1 of the treatment process. Car T Therapy is split into 3 parts; 1. T Cell Collection, 2. T Cell Engineering and then 3. Infusion of the Engineered Cells back to Emma.
Emma was meant to come home after Part 1 and then return to Shanghai for Part 3.
Instead she needs to have some additional treatment prior to Part 3 to give her the best shot at Car T Therapy working. Which now means she will be in Shanghai the whole time, looking likely to return home to Wanaka mid- late May.
Donations and some exciting events are still happening in the background including Royalburn Station’s Fundraiser and Nat Thaipun (Master Chef Winner) pop up at Muttonbird which we are continually so grateful for! Every bit is all helping with this extra treatment cost.
Thanks for making the impossible possible and bring on the wild ride ahead,
Love Holden family on behalf of Emma and George.
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