Help Philip beat stage 4 Melanoma Cancer

Philip (aka Philzy) is a born and bred coasty, he is an amazing husband and a very talented carpenter, currently living and loving life on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland. Back in the day he was a keen league and touch player, and almost lived at the Silverdale Rugby Club. He would never have guessed that at 37 years old he would get a life threatening diagnosis - stage 4 metastatic melanoma, one of the most aggressive cancers around.

It all started when Phil had a mole removed on his stomach back in 2010, an area that rarely saw the sun. This mole was checked so many times previously by other clinics and there was ‘nothing to worry about’, one look by his local GP and it was taken out straight away. Diagnosis was an aggressive form of melanoma, but they were adamant that they got it all. 4 years later we noticed some massive lumps under his arm, and the devastating news was that the cancer had spread; we are now at stage 3 cancer. He had about 20 lymph nodes taken out and was put straight on a drug trial to try and stop it spreading, it didn't work. One year later a CT scan showed some lumps in his stomach and neck. More bad news, we are now at stage 4 metastatic melanoma, and it is now a race against the clock.

The issue with metastatic melanoma is that traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy is not a cure, in fact it may not help much at all, the only treatment option is immunotherapy, but this is pricey.

Keytruda is a new immunotherapy drug only just available in New Zealand. Results overseas are really promising; almost up to 70% of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma are responding, and in some cases making the tumours inactive. However, this drug is very expensive, it is $14,000 per treatment (every 3 weeks), and you need to be on it for at least a year (and maybe longer). Our first bill totalled $289,000!!! This drug is funded all over the world but not New Zealand, and Pharmac have just announced publically they will continue not to fund it due to the cost, but agrees there is no other alternative to treatment.

Funding that amount of money ourselves is just impossible, but we want to try and give Philz the best possible treatment available.

Philzy is one of those typical blokes that hates asking for help, in fact he flatly refuses. He is one of the most humble, kind and generous people I know, hence why I married him. He would be an amazing father, and we so want to get that chance.

Any help you could give us would be amazing, we still have dreams of traveling the world, having a family and helping to support his parents in their later years, and this drug could help us do that.

Update: Please look at the update page to see how Phils treatment is going. He has not responded to Keytruda so we are looking at other treatment options, and getting a second opinion.