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Help Simon receive life saving treatment

  • A huge thank you!

      19 December 2023
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    As the Givealittle comes to a close, the family just want to say an enormous thank you to all of the incredibly generous donors.

    It has been overwhelming to see the amount of support flowing in for Simon, which is truly a testament to the kind of person he is.

    Simon is currently in New Zealand receiving bridging treatment. The treatment is needed so that Simon is well enough to eventually return to Melbourne to receive his re-engineered cells.

    Thank you so much again everyone.

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  • Back in Wellington

      13 December 2023

    A mixed bag update. As suspected, Simon’s lymphoma had increased within the bone marrow. The percentage (originally 1% just over two weeks ago) won’t be confirmed until later next week but they have confirmed that it’s “highly visible under microscope”. This is enough for the medical team to confirm the best route of action - Simon and Don are home for “plan B”.

    “Plan B” was the Roche (pharmaceutical company) funded drug that was recommended if we couldn’t get CAR t-cell therapy. On top of that we are opting for another (privately funded) drug that works in a different way, but early research is showing that they work well together.

    Combined, they will give him the best shot at knocking back the cancer WITHOUT using chemotherapy. If this is successful, we can come back to Melbourne for CAR T-cell therapy.

    None of these are available publicly yet. This is an opportunity for Si to be part of “leading edge” therapy, by receiving these drugs AND potentially CAR t-cell therapy later on.

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  • Off to Melbourne!

      3 December 2023

    A huge thank you again to everyone that has given so generously. The family are overwhelmed by the amount of love and support, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

    The poker night here in Lower Hutt was an absolutely success, and we want to say a huge thank you to everyone that was involved in making it happen.

    To update you all, Simon and Donnella are off to Australia tomorrow (Monday) to begin the treatment journey. On Wednesday, Simon will have stem cells extracted and will begin the three (almost four) week wait for the new and healthy cells.

    They expect to be in Australia until mid February at the earliest.

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  • Thank you!

      20 November 2023

    On behalf of the family, we wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has given so generously.

    Ella, Simon’s daughter, wanted to say thank you to everyone for donating and for sharing this page around. The generosity that has been shown by everyone has filled us with so much hope, and we are so appreciative of everyone giving dad the chance to beat this.

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