Please help Caiden and his family

We want to thank each and every one of you for your support since this page was first set up for the MacGibbon family. The contributions have helped Jasmine and Karl immensely by enabling both parents to be there for Caiden not only for the level of care he requires but for them to also make the most of every moment. We are also very grateful to all of those amazing people out there who have shown their love and support in a multitude of different ways. We cannot thank everyone enough!

After his radiation treatments, Caiden has been in good spirits as he usually is, and we even got some great news confirming that the tumour had reduced in size. Unfortunately, on Tuesday night, Caiden needed to be taken back up to Starship because his symptoms that he has had since diagnosis had gotten significantly worse but also including some newer issues that hadn't been present before.

An MRI has shown that his tumour has grown in size (bigger than what it was prior to his diagnosis in November 2022) and we are hoping that the cause is puesedoprogression which can happen up to 3 months after radiation, rather than tumour progression. The MRI also picked up a new mass which the oncologist specialist says, looks to be diffuse DIPG – they are unsure at this time.

Jasmine and Karl were presented with a few options to consider, none of which were an easy decision due to the high risks associated to each one. Caiden went into surgery this morning where a needle was inserted to aspirate/drain the tumour which will hopefully take some pressure off the brain as this is what is flaring up a lot if his symptoms. He is currently in recovery and will be closely monitored over the next few days.

Caiden had been on a waiting list for a clinical trial which isn’t yet live in New Zealand due to the hospital board taking longer than expected to sign this off – there is still no indication on when this trial is expected to start. We are also unsure if he would still be eligible due to the changes in the tumour. The longer we wait, the less chance we have to try and get his tumour under control... DIPG doesn't wait.

There are a couple of different option Jasmine and Karl are considering – there is an Onc201 trial that is run in Germany which costs approximately $20,000 NZD per month and this is for the medication alone. There are other trials being run outside of New Zealand which obviously means additional financial costs if Caiden and his parents need to temporarily move to another country during treatment. Being a parent, you would leave no rock unturned to fight this cancer and to hold on to every hope that you can for a miracle.

Since having started this Give a little page, we were embarking on the unknown. As things have progressed a lot has changed, therefore, this funding has taken a new route - a fight to help save Caiden by giving him access to the best medical trials to help fight against DIPG. DIPG is an aggressive fast growing cancer and time is vital.

We hope by extending this page's end date, it would help support the money required to look into alternative active trials that are out there. We want to try to give Caiden a chance by giving him and his family access to other trials that are abroad.