Help Us Make Dad's Remaining Time His Best

UPDATE: Dad has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Adenocarcinoma, originating from his lungs. We have had a building company come forward to help us with progress in the part of the house that Dad is in, but we are still needing to finish many areas and purchase materials to get to the point we can install his bathroom for him (at this stage he has no washing facilities which is proving extremely hard for everyone involved). And the family are struggling to cover costs with the extra childcare, petrol and parking costs associated with his constant visits to GP's, North Shore Hospital, Auckland Hospital, and Greenlane Hospital. He has had a course of Radiotherapy and will be starting Chemo this coming week to help his symptoms and hopefully give us many more months with him. Any and all support during this time is hugely appreciated and means so much not only to Dad, but to us to help us manage life best we can.

Dad was diagnosed with Progressive Multiple Sclerosis about 4 years ago. He has been going on a steadily downhill dive which has been hard on him and my family. Unable to use stairs anymore, he sold his house and used his funds to put into mine so that we could build out downstairs for him, so that I could care for him as needed.

The builder we chose was "registered", worked through a time plan and financial plan and our house was meant to be finished in a period of 3-5 months. From the minute he started building it was clear he did not know what he was doing. He lost us over $40,000 due to his incompetence, and we had no choice but to make him leave halfway through the building and pay other builders to fix weeks worth of mistakes. We spent last winter with a newborn baby, and Dad with his illness, in a house made of framing and building paper. Yes - it was cold, damp, and hideous but we had no choice as all of our money was gone. Relying on my father in law to finish our building on the weekends, we have found ourselves this winter at least with cladding on, but still no insulation as the cladding is not yet finished. Less drafts, but still very cold!!

Dad started getting more and more sick, having falls, being in unbearable pain. A call to the ambulance last week got him into hospital, and after many scans and tests have revealed tumours on his pancreas and pelvis.

I am his main caregiver, and run a full time cat rescue charity and op shop on the Hibiscus Coast - I do not get paid for this, and we rely entirely on my husbands income to pay our mortgage and needs. We have a 2 year old and a 5 year old also. Just the hospital visits with parking and petrol have used our weekly food budget. The situation is stressful enough with Dads diagnosis to have to worry financially about how we are going to get the house finished.

I am hoping to raise enough funds to purchase materials and pay a builder to finish our cladding, so that we can get council sign off for the next step. Purchase insulation to finish the entire house so we can get sign off to line the inside, then we can install Dad's heatpump so he can have warmth, as well as purchase and install his bathroom so he can have hot water and a shower.

I want to be able to have Dad at home for as long as possible. Everything he had is gone due to the bad decision we made choosing our builder, his belongings are still locked in a container (we are unsure if they are damaged from the 2 year+ storage time) and he is living in a building site. I don't want him to pass on without enjoying having a "home".

He has endured many personal heartaches on top of this over the last 4-5 years, and its just heartbreaking that so much can happen to one man who has given nothing but love his whole life. He deserves this one last comfort - of having a home. At this stage we are still waiting for biopsy results to come back but the doctor has updated us to say it is cancer in his pelvic bone and cancer in his pancreas.