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Leaving our life in NZ for cancer care in the USA. Life extending/saving drug (Tagrisso) not funded in NZ.

  • Update from Joey & Julie in the USA

      9 December 2020
    Posted by: Julie Moon
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    Hey All,

    We had our first Thanksgiving holiday with family in 20 years. What a wonderful gift. My brother smoked us a turkey and it was AMAZING....

    Julie had her 3-month scan on Thursday and she met with Dr. Ramalingam this morning. Her results were all good! All of the abdominal progression we saw in July is gone. No evidence of disease. There is still a nodule in the lung he wants to keep an eye on but is confident we can deal with it should it change. I just want to thank all of y'all for your help along the way - it has made all the difference in getting things set up here.

    Love from Joey & Julie

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  • Meeting Julie's care team

      19 November 2020
    Posted by: Julie Moon
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    Hi All,

    I just wanted to send out a quick update to let you that Julie is still responding very well to Tagrisso. We met our Oncology team at Emory last week. Dr. Ramilingam is an Academic Oncologist and regarded as one of the top lung cancer doctors specializing in EGFR lung cancer. He was part of the clinical trial team that helped progress Tagrisso to FDA approval. He is also involved in clinical trials that focus on resistance to Tagrisso, which almost always happens. He is the right man for the challenge. Julie has her next Scan on Dec 4th and appt on Dec 8th. I will provide a further update from there.

    As much as we miss our family, friends, and home, we are absolutely certain we made the right choice and are blessed to have family here to support us.

    Other stuff - Julie and I passed our driver's test yesterday and got our Georgia licenses :-) Julie did better than I did.

    We have been fortunate to "house sit for free" at Perdido Key, Florida for about 4 weeks. Julie read 9 books. I have been looking for jobs and whatnot. It's been fun but I am going crazy not working.

    Friends, we could not have done this without you so thank you again.

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  • Update on Julie

      17 October 2020
    Posted by: Julie Moon
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    Hi All, I wanted to send out a quick note to let you know that we have arrived in the USA safely and are doing well.

    We have set up Julie's insurance and we have her first appointment with her new oncology team in early November at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

    I will keep you all updated on our progress. Again, we cannot thank you enough for your support - It means the world.

    Joey & Julie

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  • Thank You All So Much!

      3 October 2020

    Hi All,

    It has been a crazy week of preparing to leave New Zealand - for now :-)

    I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the financial and emotional support from all of you. We are in awe of your kindness and generosity.

    Your contributions will pay for Julie's care for over a year, which is beyond incredible. This will make it possible to focus on Julie and reduce the stress associated with this massive change in our lives that, no doubt, will occur.

    I will keep y'all updated once we get over to the US. Again, words cannot begin to express our gratitude. You all are just incredible.

    Much Aroha, Joey & Julie

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    • 04/10/2020 by Mary

      All my love and kia kaha xx

    • 04/10/2020 by Mary

      I would like to say a huge thank you to Carol Chin for organizing this page - , I haven't had the privilege of meeting you, but you are an extraordinary person who has achieved a fantastic result for our dear Joey and Julie. Thank you

    • 06/10/2020 by Carol Chin

      Thanks Mary, am glad we organised this page for Joey and Julie to help them both. A huge thank you for everyones support!