We need YOU! Cancer is messing with our MUCH LOVED DESRAE

Here is Desrae's story in her own words:

"I knew something was afoot when I didn’t feel like a tipple while at a friend’s BBQ over the Labour Day long weekend (Oct 2016) and my stomach started becoming bloated.

Following an ultrasound and further testing, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer stage 3C. In December, I started nine rounds of chemotherapy (Paclitaxel and Carboplatin) with “interval debulking surgery”, in between.

Think - nuke, shrink, remove as much of the tumour as possible, then nuke again to be sure you get as much of the bugger as you can!!!

To support my healing, I took bold steps as I did not want this thing to take over the essential me. So I overhauled my life and diet to saint-like qualities- no sugar, alcohol or coffee and eating predominantly organic, plant-based food, regular exercise and lots of sleep.

By June 2017, I’d earned my chemo stripes as it were. All of the people who live with cancer know what I am talking about, sadly the stripes we all wish we didn't have. I welcomed a break from it all knowing that the tumour had responded well to treatment and had reduced considerably. I celebrated by completing the Kāpiti Women’s Triathlon…..I know get me!, but I wanted to celebrate living.

From then on my life has been one of being monitored regularly by the medical profession, but in June 2018 my cancer recurred. Soon after, I started another six rounds of chemotherapy (Gemcitabine and Carboplatin this time, for a bit of variety!). Last month, I was told that the chemotherapy hadn’t worked and that my last funded option for treatment is taking Etoposide (tablet form of chemotherapy) and intravenous Paclitaxel.

SO, as you can all imagine I am gutted but I am a fighter with a strong conviction that my health situation does not fit the “one size fits all” standard protocol offered by our health system.

I would appreciate some financial support to pay for my monthly treatments. As my illness is deemed “incurable” by the system, I would like to complement my conventional treatment, which I have to pay for, with metabolic and natural therapies."