Help Miriam fund her cycles of Kadcyla

A message from our dear friend Miriam for help during her journey with breast cancer

Hi all, my name is Miriam Armstrong. I am a busy Mum living in my hometown of Akaroa, Banks Peninsula with fiance Andrew and our three children aged five, 10 and 13. I am sixth generation to live here in Akaroa. My parents, Mark and Sonia, live over the hill in Stony Bay, and my two sisters live nearby in Akaroa and Christchurch. Along with some parttime work, I've been involved in community groups associated with children-Playcentre, Preschool, Primary School Board of Trustees and Plunket.

Eight months ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It has been a stressful, anxious and challenging time for myself, family and friends. Our local community has always been amazing in times of adversity and I have drawn a lot of strength from their support. It's an early stage diagnosis that is deemed treatable. Our medical team are basically throwing the kitchen sink at it -chemotherapy for 15 months, surgery and radiation. So far I have had chemo-targeted and immunotherapies, a mastectomy and auxillary lymph node removal from armpit; next comes more chemo, 25 sessions of radiotherapy over 5 weeks and a daily oestrogen suppressant for the next 5-10 years. It's a journey nobody chooses but here we are and I must make the best of it...

It is now two months post-surgery and my oncologist Raj has recommended I have Kadcyla, a targeted chemotherapy drug, which I have started. It is a costly cutting-edge Medsafe-approved and Pharmac non-funded drug (Pharmac is the NZ government agency that decides which medicines and related products are funded in NZ). The treatment plan will consist of 14 cycles, taking me through to June 2022. We are self-funding cycles 1-4, and are fundraising for cycles 5,6 & 7 which comes to $NZ22,000. The cost of Kadcyla is capped meaning the first 1-7 cycles are at full cost and cycles 8-14 are given at little to no cost.

Thank you all for your ongoing love, care, support, hugs, laughter and prayers. We now humbly ask for your assistance. Each and every contribution is valuable to us.

Arohanui, thank you, Miriam