$112k drug needed to beat cancer
A 26-year-old with stage four bowel cancer is heartbroken that funding is the only thing standing between her and potentially lifesaving treatment.
West Aucklander Tegan Hollier received a shock diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer, ‘‘teetering on curable’’, on January 15, despite having almost no symptoms.
At the same time, doctors discovered Hollier may have Lynch Syndrome, a genetic condition putting those with it at a higher risk of developing cancer while young, generally before the age of 50.
On February 7, Hollier had surgery to remove her ascending colon, 24 centimetres of her small intestine and 21 lymph nodes. However, some infected lymph nodes could not be removed as they were too close to the bowel’s main blood supply.
Following the surgery, the removed matter was sent for testing which ‘‘100 per cent confirmed’’ doctors’ suspicions of Lynch Syndrome, meaning three months of chemotherapy treatment initially planned is now off the table for Hollier.
‘‘Chemo isn’t an option because it’s going to do next to nothing,’’ she said.
‘‘It will destroy my body but won’t do anything.’’
As Hollier is now considered terminal in the eyes of the public health system, her only chance at survival lies with Keytruda, an unfunded immunotherapy treatment which works to boost the immune system to attack cancerous tumours.
Keytruda has led to dramatic responses in Lynch Syndrome patients worldwide, but the drug is not funded for the hereditary syndrome in New Zealand, despite an estimated one in 279 people having it.
It is, however, funded for advanced melanoma.
Given that the initial stage of treatment costs $112,000, and there is the possibility of further cycles, Hollier returned to work less than a month after her surgery and is relying on donations to her Givealittle.
‘‘I’m just really angry, because literally my life is in my own hands and now it depends if I can get enough money.
‘‘It’s pretty heartbreaking really,’’ she said.
‘‘Not having this treatment isn’t an option.’’
Meanwhile, Hollier feels almost ‘‘100 per cent’’, despite being a bit slower than she was before her surgery, and recently celebrated her engagement to Courtney Wooller, her partner of two years.
‘‘I got the best day of my life during the worst time in my life.
‘‘I’m ugly and literally dying on the inside, but on the outside I’m still pretty normal.’’
She has also started a Facebook page documenting ‘‘the good stuff and the funny stuff’’ of cancer treatment, to help others see that cancer diagnoses don’t always have to be sad.
‘‘Sometimes people don’t want to talk about it because it involves poo,’’ she said.