We thought 2020 was bad....then it got worse. Cancer sucks! Help us reduce the financial burden.

Cancer sucks. And it sucks even more when it’s one of your own.

This is Karl. Just over three years ago, he was getting into the swing of things of being a first-time dad to son Lachlan (then four months old).

Just before Xmas 2017 Karl and his Partner Rachel got the devastating news that he has a brain stem glioma (an inoperable brain tumour, aka brain cancer).

Life changed in an instant. Due to the location of the tumour, there was no way to biopsy it to find out how aggressive it was, so it was straight into six weeks of intensive radiation, followed by six months chemo in an effort to shrink the tumour.

The first round worked as best it could, giving Karl a chance to live a normal life and more time with his family that he ever could have imagined. But, for the past two and a half years, he has been living with a ticking time bomb in the back of his head.

While life had been looking up, Xmas 2020 brought bad news once again with the cancer rearing its ugly head. Karl’s symptoms have returned and he has started another round in intensive IV chemo to try to slow the growth.

This IV chemo is next level from the first round of treatment and one of his treatment drugs (avastin) is not part of the Pharmac funded cancer drugs. This means only a portion is covered by his health insurance, with a huge bill still left to pay – putting enormous financial strain on Karl and Rachel.

We’d love to help Karl and Rachel raise the money needed to cover his treatment costs and reduce the financial burden.

As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved, and with a problem this big we’d like to help any way we can. Times are tough, but every little bit will help mitigate the financial stress the family are under while Karl is being treated.