Help Give Roge More Time

Give a Little for Roge

Rog is a husband, father, grandfather, brother and just a very special person.

Roger has two sons who respect and the love him so much.

A special gift is our little Grandson, who just loves his Rog!!!!

Rogers’ life revolves around just making everyone happy, always others first and then himself second.

Rog would be one of the most unselfish people we know.

He worked on the land as a Stock Agent since the age of 15, before his diagnoses, he just loved his job as he enjoyed helping others.

Making sure he could get the best deals for his clients, listening to them all be it good or bad,

We would tease him about being a farmers’ handkerchief, but he would just laugh.

Always a smile on his face, the perfect person to drive up the drive if you were having a bad day.

He has travelled so many miles in his life to get the job done!

Also a great community man having spent many years on Board of Trustees at our local school.

Managed and coached more sports teams than I can count.

Hand always goes up to help if there was an event to be put together.

Joined the Local Lions Club as this was a way to help raise money to help others.

The story now unfolds, we were away on a family weekend in Hanmer, it had been awhile since the whole family got together.

Roge had a sore shoulder, thought it was caused by a knock from a sheep, so we thought the nice pools in Hanmer would help.

A week after we got home the shoulder was still enlarged and painful, so we thought we better get it checked.

An x- ray and scan later our worst fears were confirmed, Roge had a huge tumour on the shoulder.

After a long wait with no answers to our questions as we all know our Public Health system is over loaded, we finally found someone to speed up the process and get some help, as if we had not Rog would not still be with us.

Rog had had small skin lesions off over the years and 5 years ago had had surgery to remove a lesion off his neck which involved the removal of lymph glands, he was cleared after this no follow up treatment needed BUT;

This was not the case and in May 2017 he was diagnosed with masticated melanoma having multiple tumours throughout his body.

This was our worst nightmare.

When you have something like this the waiting is a nightmare.

We were eventually told he was palliative.

Roger was given radium treatment on his shoulder and his pelvic area to reduce the tumours and effectively sent home.

We were not going to let this be the end Rog deserved more.

Finally, we found an option in a newly funded immunology drug called Ketruda, but this was unsuccessful.

The door was not going to close!!!

We had no option left but to try the non-funded drug option.

We had an Oncologist working with us on these drugs.

The first option at a cost of $10.000 per month failed, Roge took the drug for 4 days and could not tolerate and there was no refund on the unused drugs.

I feel companies should offer this option or should allow you to purchase these drugs weekly rather than having to purchase a whole month!!

Finally, we were offered the option of the combined Immunology drug ………… This drug is produced by a company called Novartis and is fully funded in Australia, it is registered here with Medicare, but PHARMAC is yet to give it the tick of approval, the main reason being the huge cost!

Roge has been having huge success with this drug and we are really thankful for this as it has been a long haul, in which time Roge has never ever given up and has carried on his life with helping others when he can and there is always that smile!

Rog has not been able to work since May last year so things are not easy.

We have tried to self - fund this drug, but it gets harder and harder, so we are asking for your help in perhaps Giving a Little.

We have had such incredible support from the Community, friends and family and there are some really special people out there.

How we will ever thank you all for just being there.