Help Kate & Mike fight their biggest fight yet, with funding needed to support urgent life-extending cancer treatment for multiple myeloma
Canterbury
Kate Johnson (Eastwood) has a vigour for life, loves teaching and the colour purple, and is an amazing friend, sister, wife to Mike, and mother to Saffiyah and Rourke.
In May, Kate was diagnosed with advanced non-secretory multiple myeloma—a rare and aggressive blood cancer. Her bone marrow is over 90% affected. It was not caught early.
Kate is being treated by an incredible team in Christchurch. Her current treatment includes Lenalidomide, Bortezomib, and Dexamethasone, with a stem cell transplant to follow. This is standard treatment in NZ. However, to increase her life span, Daratumumab is recommended—a drug funded in 49 countries but not in NZ.
Although myeloma is incurable, treatment with Daratumumab can help manage the disease for several years or more.
The treatment involves injections weekly for 8 weeks, fortnightly for 4 months, then monthly. The cost is $180,772 for the first 16 shots over 6 months, and $67,308 for the next 6 shots over the following 6 months.
Even after the stem cell transplant, the drug is still needed monthly until relapse, when it is no longer effective.
Kate is active, full of life, and determined to keep living. With your help, she can keep fighting, keep hugging, and keep being Kate.
If you know Kate & Mike, you’ll know that asking for help doesn’t come easily. Every donation, share, or message makes a difference. Let’s give Kate the chance to fight this. Thank you for your kindness.
https://www.leukaemia.org.nz/blood-cancer-information/myeloma
I am Kate’s youngest sister and with Jo and Rachel (sisters) we have set this page up to help Kate get the treatment she deserves.
Funding for the drug Daratumumab will significantly help Kate. It works by finding and attaching to protein CD38 on the surface of myeloma cells. Once attached, it helps the immune system kill those cells. It is known to significantly increase your life.
Update message from Kate and Mike 29 November 2025
We're off to Shanghai Dec 10. Unfortunately meds/chemo haven’t worked (including the 11 $5,000 shots) I’m not able to have a stem cell transplant as my bone marrow is 80-90% myeloma. We have spoken to 5 people who've had car t in Shanghai and met with 2 of them. Car-T is a transplant thing where they take my T cells (from white blood cells), genetically engineer them in a lab to create antigens that target cancer cells and then infuse them back into me. It would be at least 7 weeks in Shanghai (around 3-4 weeks in hospital)
I’ll spend 4 nights/ 5 days at Renji hospital having tests - bloods (30 vials), lung capacity test, ultrasound, bone marrow biopsy, ECG, PET scan, and having my T cells harvested (apparently around 5 hours and I get to drink a lot of liquid calcium) Then we spend anywhere from 4 to 7 days playing tourists (while T cells are being played around with) At Li Quan hospital on day 1 get to do bloods, ECG, ultrasound of heart and a CT scan then a PICC line is put in. Then there’s 3 days of chemo followed by a day off. On day 5 my Car T cells will be infused and following that I have to stay in hospital for 2 weeks. Most people just have a light fever. 3 days after discharge I have to go back for more blood tests (this could change as I am a non- secretor so myeloma doesn’t show in my blood). Day 30 from infusion I go back to the hospital for a bone marrow biopsy. Timings can all change depending on side effects and if I need more than one car t infusion.
Thanks Mum!
Thank you Michael, much appreciated.
Thank you so much David and Deborah.
Thanks Rach Xo
Thank you Anne for your donation, we so greatly appreciate it.
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