Help Wayne kick cancer to the curb!
Help us raise $40,000 to put towards Wayne's cancer treatment, no donation is too small!
Whangarei, Northland
Last year my dad Wayne was diagnosed with thymic squamous carcinoma a very rare type of cancer. He has undergone radiation and a round of chemo, however it has grown and spread and he needs to have further chemo and immunotherapy to shrink the tumours enough to be able to operate on his spine which is the ultimate goal so he can walk again. He also has lesions on his vocal chords and his trachea so it is hard for him to speak. Unfortunately, the Keytruda (immunotherapy) isn't government funded or covered by insurance and is extremely expensive, $8000 a fortnight! Over the years, Wayne has given so much of himself to his community and his family, and now we are asking for your help.
Kym Dunning's involvement (page creator)
Wayne is my dad and we all know he would cringe at the thought of this, but he needs this treatment to help him walk again.
Use of funds
Wayne's Keytruda treatments
Latest update
Message from Wayne 25 October 2021
To all you generous and kind people who have gone far beyond my expectations to assist our family as we endeavour to beat the cancer in my body.
From my local whanau and friends here in Kohukohu who are here for me 24/7 to ensure life goes on as normal as it can, you are just amazing and I cannot believe how lucky I am to have you all around me and, to the many of you who have generously donated financially to ensure we are able to complete the full treatment of the 12-cycle program we have undertaken.
There are two cancers active at present; one is in my back and is putting pressure on my spine to the point now that I am wheelchair bound due to this. The second cancer is adjacent to my voice box and likewise putting pressure on it and making talking quite difficult.
Hopefully the initial three treatment cycles will put the growth of the cancers on hold and the treatment cycles thereafter will begin reducing them both in size and get them under control.
Each cycle entails one treatment of Pembrolizumab/Keytruda immunotherapy every three weeks and two treatments of Gemcitabine chemo of weeks one and two of each cycle.
All treatment is done at the Canopy Cancer Care Clinic in Whangarei which is a four-hour round-trip drive from my home in Kohukohu and which the transport is provided by one of our generous Kohukohu friends.
The second cycle finishes next Thursday 28th October then a two week break to the beginning of cycle three on the 11th November which finishes on 18th November.
Hopefully soon after this date we will have various tests carried out to see how things are tracking and, whilst it is still very early days, we should get some indication of how we are tracking.
Once again thanks to each and every one of you for your incredible support.
Arohanui from Kym, Scott and Wayne
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