Stephen’s Metastatic Lung Cancer Battle

Stephen Burke was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung around 3 months ago, barely 5 years after the suicide of his only son, Greg.

In learning to live without his only child, Stephen has been smacked with a 12 month life expectancy, and is undergoing chemotherapy that is meant only to be palliative, and certainly not to save his life.

Stephen has been offered referral to private oncologist care for immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) - which is not available through NZs public healthcare system. One appointment alone for meeting this oncologist would be $500, never mind the overall cost of therapy being $70,000. For this, Stephen is even considering re-mortgaging his house, which is a massive financial burden on top of the already massive medical one he’s facing.

This therapy could give Stephen more years than just one, to carry on living and bringing his light to our world where his son no longer can.