Help Helen's Cancer Journey

My Mum Helen is the strongest, sweetest and caring person I am lucky enough to have in my life, and my two older brothers are able to vouch for that.

My mum was diagnosed initially with grade 3 breast cancer back in 2012. from this diagnosis, she was no longer able to work as an early childcare teacher due to fatigue and residual complications from chemotherapy and radiation. After beating it, a plaque in our home was put up reading "I kicked cancers ass!" because she sure did, although we thought. In 2018, a few short months after getting the all-clear she was diagnosed with grade 4 metastatic breast cancer, or in simple terms, incurable cancer scattered around her body. At diagnosis, cancer had spread to her Liver, Lungs, lumbar vertebrae, left and right pelvis, and had led to broken ribs. Although over the years it has spread to her brain making the treatment required more difficult and extending to multiple rounds of radiotherapy. Despite saying this, my Mumma is an absolute trooper and is currently doing well!

This isn't without 2 previous chemotherapy's which unfortunately stopped working, requiring us to move to our third line of treatment.

The current chemotherapy, Tykerb, which is helping keep my mum alive and well is unfortunately not funded by pharmac like the previous two and is no longer covered by insurance as it exceeds the cost. Each round requires $3,602.00 for 140 tablets lasting 35 days due to Mumma requiring 4 tablets daily. This is unfortunately not a feasible amount to continually pay and the conversation was raised about simply stopping Tykerb and continue with the adjunct chemotherapy (which is funded). After discussing with the oncologist the fear of stopping Tykerb is that it will allow the cancer to start growing again and will be difficult to get back on top of, and the conjunction of therapies are working 50/50 currently to maintain her current stable status.

If anyone knows Mumma, you'll know that she is never one to ask for help, hence myself making this page.

Any help which you can offer whether it be a share or a donation is greatly appreciated and would mean the world for mum and our family.