Before I close this page, I would like to thank everyone who donated for their generosity and kind wishes. These funds will be a huge help to Ruth and the boys as they try to build a life without Paul.
Kind regards Glen Stapley.
You can't win them all, and sadly, despite battling hard to the end, Paul has lost his fight with Melanoma. Yesterday afternoon in the comfort of Hospice care and surrounded by his family Paul passed quietly from this world. So we must now say farewell to a dear friend and a real Battler.
Rest easy my Friend.
First I would like to thank you all, on behalf of Paul and Ruth, for your generous donations and kind wishes. They are a great comfort to them both.
Time for a game update..
We are deep in the second half and Cancer is ahead by 7 points. Following a savage tackle by the opposition number 8 “Melanoma” Paul has been benched. Today he was taken to Hospice where the medics will work tirelessly on him so he can regain match fitness. Paul is a true battler, and we hope to have him back for next weeks game.
Stay tuned.
It started with a phone call from the hospital on new year's eve 2020.
“sorry the lump in your groin is cancer, the melanoma is back” they told him.
Surgery at the end of January took care of the lump by removing the lymph nodes in his groin. Recovery was a bit slow, complicated by infection but the wound eventually healed.
Then came the first of the big decisions. Do you do nothing and hope the cancer doesn’t come back. They gave a 60% chance that it wouldn’t. Alternatively, you can take one of two treatments that increase your chances of the cancer not coming back to 70%
As both our mothers had died of cancer that started with Melanoma, we decided Paul should increase his odds and do one of the treatments. Unfortunately, neither of the treatments are funded in New Zealand until the cancer has come back, so we opted for the cheaper one of the two at a cost of $5,455.00 per month.
The treatment was a combination of two drugs, Dabrafenib and Trametinib which came with a long list of side effects. After taking these drugs and dealing with the side effects for nine months Paul was feeling bad and couldn’t face another three months. His most recent scan was clear and Covid was getting closer to Dunedin so Paul decided to stop taking the drugs in hopes of getting back a bit of quality of life and hopefully being healthy enough to fight Covid when it turned up.
At the end of January this year, the cough that he had thought was one of the side effects of treatment was back and by Early February he also had a really painful stomach and was totally exhausted all the time. Back to the doctor he went for an Xray then a follow up scan that confirmed that the Melanoma had metastasized and spread all through his body.
Time for another big decision. Do you;
• Take Steroids, that make you feel good but don’t cure the cancer, until you die.
• Take the, now funded drug Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) which gives you a one in five chance of living, or
• Add another drug (Lpilimumab) on top to the Keytruda that could increase your chances to three in five. This unfunded drug will cost $19,393.92 every three months.
Paul is a real battler and he doesn’t want to die He opted to Take the funded Keytruda along with the Lpilimumab, giving him the best chance of seeing his lads, the GI Battlers, play another season.
As it has transpired the doctors have recommended that Paul not take the treatments and concentrate on having some quality in the life he has remaining to him. We would like to see if we could all help a little to repay the $49,000 + Paul and Ruth have spent so far, please help by donating what you can, if you would shout Paul a beer, then please donate.
