Terminally-ill woman grateful for public support
As she took the first dose of a drug to combat her lung cancer, Gaye Fisher was grateful for the outpouring of public support that made it possible.
Osimertinib is funded in Australia, the United States and United Kingdom. But not in New Zealand.
‘‘They’d rather we died, I think,’’ Fisher said.
The 60-year-old is grateful. Despite going through eight years of ‘‘hell’’ and recently being diagnosed with three months to live, she feels lucky that an outpouring of support from friends, family and strangers helped raise more than $20,000. That will fund the drug for two months.
Sharing her family’s story with Stuff bolstered that support. More than 100 donations had been made to the Givealittle page a friend set up for her since she shared news of her struggle.
‘‘Everyone’s been so lovely . . . I’m speechless,’’ she said.
‘‘I am very lucky. I am very blessed, I really am. I’ve got some amazing friends. I’m just lucky. The words people send me ... It’s kindness that I didn’t know existed. People are just amazing human beings.’’
Fisher’s partner of nearly 12 years, Max Hill, has done the research. Osimertinib is used for people with a specific genetic mutation after radiation, chemotherapy and other drugs have stopped working – all of which Fisher has tried.
The mutation is different but related to one Fisher already knows she has. She has not been tested for what would make her eligible for Osimertinib if she lived overseas because she would not be able to get the drug here anyway.
‘‘We’ve taken a punt, saying ‘we will give this drug a go’ on the basis that we know in Australia that it has [had] positive outcomes,’’ Hill said. ‘‘It’s given good extension of life, so we’re hoping this will have a positive effect on Gaye but we don’t know.’’
Pharmac received a funding application for Osimertinib in November 2017. Director of operations Lisa Williams said expert clinical advisers had looked at that application twice – in April and then September last year.
‘‘They considered that, while the results of the main clinical trial are promising, the data is immature and may overstate the likely benefits,’’ Williams said.
‘‘They considered that, based on the data provided, the benefits of this treatment are highly uncertain.’’
With the time she has left, Gaye Fisher wants to produce a biography of her son Adam.
Adam Fisher, 27, was one of 18 people who died in the collapsed PGC building as a result of the February 22, 2011 earthquake. Ten days after the earthquake, before his death had been confirmed, partner Becky Gane gave birth to their second son, Ashton. In 2015, the then-4-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia.
Ashton finished three years of treatment, including a gruelling initial period of chemotherapy, in August last year. Gane said her son was now completely clear of the disease, but still had checkups every three months.
It was the opposite of Gaye Fisher’s own experience. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and had a mastectomy in 2014, the year her father died from myeloma, a type of blood cancer. She was fully cleared last year, but in the interim she received another diagnosis.
In 2016, the former mortgage manager – a non-smoker – was coughing up blood. The diagnosis: lung cancer.
Fisher started treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy that July.
A year later, she was told the cancer was terminal. The tumours had multiplied. Fisher was prescribed a drug called Iressa, fully funded by Pharmac.
The latest jolt of bad news came last month when a medical scan revealed the tumours had spread to her brain. Fisher was told she had three months to live.
‘‘Who else has been through eight years of this much hell?’’