Fight of her life
A GOLD Coast single mum who has terminal lung cancer despite never having smoked in her life is throwing her weight – and cash – behind a $2 million medicinal cannabis crowd-funding campaign by two local doctors.
Kate Malvenan, 39, was left reeling when told she had only six to 24 months to live after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last September.
The Burleigh Heads businesswoman thought the pain she was experiencing in her hip, spine, back and shoulder was due to a new gym workout, but the aggressive cancer had spread through her body.
Determined to fight the disease for the sake of her threeyear-old daughter Annabelle, she remortgaged her home to fund $130,000 worth of alternative treatment in Mexico.
She also began taking medicinal cannabis to ease her chronic pain, prescribed by Coast-based Cannabis Doctors Australia.
The company was established last October by former hospital oncology specialist Dr Matua Jansen and his GP cousin Dr Ben Hansen and now treats more than 700 patients aged six to 96 at clinics on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and in Melbourne.
It will today launch a $2 million crowd-funding campaign through PledgeMe to bankroll an expansion including more clinics and doctors.
Ms Malvenan, who was the first person in Australia to be legally prescribed crystal CBD, said she was a “massive believer” in medicinal cannabis and had invested in the company.
“I feel amazing – never felt better or healthier,” she said.
“What part of that is from what treatment I don’t know.
“Seventy-five per cent of the ‘big C’ has gone in my tumour, so life’s good. It’s onwards and upwards.”
Ms Malvenan said she was having a third round of treatment in Mexico next month.
“I’m not going to stop fighting until I’m cancer-free,” she said. “I have to do it for Annabelle.”
I’M NOT GOING TO STOP FIGHTING UNTIL I’M CANCERFREE