Let's Help Give Penny Pearce a Chance

$66,473 donated

Given by 450 generous donors in around 8 months

Please support Penny with the cost and expenses in her fight with kidney cancer and help her stay as well as she can for as long as she can.

Hawke's Bay

Penny is a top level equestrian, representing NZ in dressage and is an Equestrian NZ High Performance Manager. She is also highly sought after as a trainer for riders of all levels throughout NZ. She has been and continues to be, a loved friend and mentor to hundreds of riders and is responsible for countless numbers achieving their competitive goals. Now it's our chance to help her.

Last year Penny and her husband lost their house and almost everything else in Cyclone Gabrielle. Then in March this year she was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer which left her very few options. There are no funded treatments for advanced kidney cancer in NZ and just one unfunded treatment which is Immunotherapy using Keytruda. Unfortunately, even Keytruda is unlikely to be effective on its own meaning she will still need to access additional therapies.

Since her diagnosis, Penny's worked hard to research and understand her cancer. So with no options available in the NZ healthcare system apart from Keytruda, her only other choices are alternative treatments such as Electrotherapy, or treatments overseas both of which require funding. In particular there are some possible Targeted Therapies and a promising pioneering Radiotherapy treatment available in Australia which she may be eligible for.

Please help support Penny with the costs and expenses of the difficult journey ahead so she can explore every option. Penny is an important part of so many people's lives and we want to keep it that way.

Jo Collins' involvement (page creator)

Penny and I have been close friends for over 35 years.

Use of funds

Funds raised will be used to assist with covering the costs of treatments, medications (Keytruda), and associated travel and expenses both in NZ and overseas.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! 2 October 2024

Wow!! Penny's latest results are so exciting!. After just 6 treatments the cancer in her kidney, lungs, adrenal glands and other organs has really reduced. You can see this in the above picture of her lung scans. The left was before her first treatment and shows widespread metastases. Her latest scan on the right, shows almost normal lungs. On top of that, her overall wellbeing has vastly improved and she's getting back to normal day to day living and you might now even see her watching on at some events. So on the advice of her oncologist, she will continue the 2 year course of treatment to secure the best possible outcome.

As she heads down that road, she will have treatments less often which means they will be less expensive, but the costs are still very significant and despite changes to government funding, Penny doesn’t qualify. Her specific treatment isn’t covered and because she’s already on a treatment she’s not eligible to switch to a funded drug, which means it’s still “pay as you go”. Nonetheless we continue to hope and pray that it rolls on into a remarkable story

Lastly, Penny believes these results are certainly due to the unbelievable help, support and love she has received from so many people and she wouldn’t be where she is without it. It has given her many times, a reason to get out of bed and keep going. The lovely messages, phone calls and visits have been overwhelming but so beautiful and life saving.

So from Penny - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

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