Let’s help Erin Howard and her family to fight her cancer battle.

On her 43rd birthday, Erin received shocking news that a recent lump removed from her hip was malignant melanoma & a terrible migraine, the result of the cancer spreading into 12 brain tumors, & elsewhere to her lungs & back.

She can no longer drive, or work. Surgery is not an option. Her current chemo drugs (dabrafenib & trametinib) have a 90% chance of shrinking her tumors but they are only expected to work for 3 months. They are not publicly funded & will cost at least $80,000. They will eventually stop working & the cancer will advance, so they hope to change to immunotherapy treatment (ipilimumab and nivolumab) to give her the best chance of survival. Should she respond (fingers crossed), the cost of this will be much more.

Tragedy has hit Erin before with her father, Constable Peter Umbers killed in the line of duty in the Maniototo in 1990, leaving her mother to raise her 2 daughters as a single parent. Watching her children adjust to her diagnosis, having had her own experience of dealing with the sudden loss of her father, is extremely difficult for Erin. Her focus is now on extending her precious time with her family, & creating a legacy by realising her dream of planting her own propagated native trees, on their farm for all to enjoy.

The offer of support received really does mean the world to Erin and her family. “My goal is to stay with them as long as possible & to become one of those people who were diagnosed and never quite died.”