Help Alethea's Healing

In 2016 our precious friend Alethea was diagnosed with aggressive stage IV adenocarcinoma (non-small cell lung cancer) that had metastasised to her pelvis, ribs and lymph nodes. Alethea's lung cancer was not caused by smoking, but purely bad luck. Surgery was deemed not an option due to tumour position and spread.

A fundraiser was started that year (see: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/aletheashealingmission) and helped greatly in covering the costs of therapies that built her immune system alongside taking TKI cancer drugs which have given her a good quality of life for the past two years.

In May this year however the drugs stopped working and Alethea has been in excruciating pain which has made it incredibly hard to care for her lively three year old son and live a normal life. She has just started funded chemotherapy along with non-funded immunotherapy. (Please see the link to the recent Herald article on Alethea's plight and the lack of government funding for immunotherapy.)

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/cancer/news/article.cfm?c_id=140&objectid=12143244

Currently it is immunotherapy which looks to give Alethea the best chance at pain reduction and survival. Every three weeks immunotherapy is costing $7,550. Alethea has a life insurance policy which will partially fund this but only for a very short period of time given the exorbitant cost of this drug. The total cost for two years of treatment is approximately $140,000 for the immunotherapy alone.

She also needs to fund weekly intravenous Vitamin C treatments to help with side effects and to give her a much needed energy boost while undertaking treatments.

Alethea's strength, positive attitude and determination to get through this to be around for her gorgeous son Taikura and her partner Kelly is unwavering. Kelly is her rock of support and has had to give up work in order to care for his family.

We hope to raise over $60K to make up the shortfall for Alethea’s treatment, to alleviate the huge financial burden so she can focus on healing and enjoying precious time with her whānau. Any donations to assist her with the required treatments are dearly appreciated no matter how big or small.

On behalf of her friends and whānau, we would like to thank you in advance for your generosity and support.