Kiwi Philanthropist Offers Fijian Holiday to Young Cancer Patient and Activist

I am also offering Eva and two of her chosen carers to stay at my villa in Fiji for a week: Businessman Owen Glenn offers

AKiwi philanthropist and rich-lister is offering to facilitate a tropical holiday for a young cancer patient who has raised thousands of dollars for others.

Eva McGauley was just 15 when she was diagnosed with a nasopharyngeal cancer - a rare type of head and neck cancer. She was told she had a stage four tumour behind her cheek and nose and other tumours in the lymph nodes in her neck.

Following intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy the 18-year-old has found out her cancer had spread to her hip and a lymph node in her chest. The disease is now terminal.

In between bouts of cancer treatment she has raised more than NZ$70,000 (FJ$100,445.42) for others.

She led a campaign called EvasWish aiming at stopping sexual violence and helping others to find their voice and set up an Auckland-based sexual abuse assistance programme called HELP.

And the past day has brought with it an outpouring of generosity from Kiwis wanting to help fund Ms McGauley’s treatment with a drug she believes is keeping her alive - Keytruda.

Ms McGauley’s medicine did not classify for funding from a drug company, and the pricey medicine was a stretch for her family. Eva goes to Palmerston North for treatment every three weeks and the drug alone costs NZ$4600 (FJ$6600.70) a pop.

Ms McGauley’s friend Daniela Hardwick has set up a Givealittle page to help raise funds for the treatment. Further to this, philanthropist and businessman Sir Owen Glenn offered to make up any shortfall to help fund the NZ$60,000 (FJ$86,067.49) needed, if this wasn’t met by this Friday.

However, less than two weeks after the page was set up it was nearing the $69,000 (FN$99,010.48) mark yesterday morning.

Donations to the page were sitting around NZ$13,000 (FJ$18,647.96) before the weekend, but Ms McGauley said they had begun flowing in after the Herald ran a story about the cause on Sunday.

“My family and I were sitting around just watching the money come in. We were saying, ‘this can’t be happening’.”

This meant Mr Glenn’s offer to fund a shortfall to the NZ$60,000 (FJ$86,067.49) needed was not essential to Eva having access to the her Keytruda medicine. However, Glenn had also tabled an offer of a tropical holiday.

“I am also offering for Eva and two of her chosen carers to stay at my villa in Fiji for a week. If a medical carer is needed we will also support his/her expenses,” he said.

Ms McGauley said the offer sounded “crazy, just amazing”.

“I mean, I’d have to think about how it would work but it sounds incredible... I think it would be do-able.” Mr Glenn said he was happy to support McGauley’s expenses, air fares and money for meals and accommodation - as well as that for two carers.

He also noted the generosity expressed by others over the past days, calling it “remarkable”.

Doctors had suggested Ms McGauley try the immunotherapy drug Keytruda as a last ditch-attempt in her cancer battle.

Before she started taking the drug she had a few large tumours which caused her pain and a bunch of little ones floating around.

“I had too many tumours to remember. It had metastasised, I had them all around my body,” she told the Herald on Sunday.

Three months later they were all gone.

While the chemo had become too much for her body to handle, Keytruda had surprisingly few side effects and was giving Eva a quality of life she hadn’t had in years.

“I haven’t felt anything except for maybe a little bit of tiredness,” Eva said.

It was uncharted territory, she said. But there was hope.

“I’m able to think about the future for the first time.” Keytruda worked wonders for many patients with terminal melanoma and was now being used to treat some lung, brain and bowel cancers.

It hadn’t been used much for nasopharyngeal carcinoma but they decided to give it a try.