‘I plan on living, every day’
Widower with terminal cancer fights to be there for his sons
A week after his wife died from cancer, an Auckland man, who also has terminal cancer, stood in front of health stakeholders to ask for funding for a drug that could have seen her live longer.
Last year, Graham and Mery Brooke-Smith were both diagnosed with terminal lung cancer within five months of each other.
The Auckland couple – both non-smokers – were given six months to live if they didn’t receive treatment.
They have two boys, aged 12 and 10.
Mery died in November, six months after she was diagnosed.
Six days after he buried her, Graham stood in front of thenMinister of Health Andrew Little, Pharmac and health stakeholders at a Parliamentary cocktail event, highlighting the challenges faced by lung cancer patients in New Zealand.
The treatments both he and Mery received to help lengthen their lives were not funded by Pharmac.
Graham’s medication, a thirdgeneration targeted drug, was expected to give him four more years with his boys.
Mery received chemotherapy, but immunotherapy, which had a better life expectancy, wasn’t funded by Pharmac. Both their treatments cost them $22,000 a month and they started a Givealittle page to help raise funds. Pharmac recently said it would start funding immunotherapy treatments from April 1.
‘‘It’s too late for Mery now,’’ Graham said.
‘‘I’m a widower now, a solo dad with terminal cancer. If life wasn’t tough enough, money is the last thing a family in this situation should be worried about and treatment, which is so readily available, that we can’t afford.
‘‘The impact I’ve seen in my family, I don’t want to see happen to other New Zealanders.’’
Since Mery’s death, Graham is trying to spend as much time with his children, Marcus and Daniel.
He is not helping to campaign for cancer drugs any more, so he can iustead focus on his treatment, which includes chemotherapy.
He said while the funding for cancer treatment was good, it wasn’t enough.
‘‘I don’t plan on dying, I plan on living, every day. What I’ve been planning is for the kids to have experiences with all of us together in holidays, and that will create memories.
‘‘So it’s not like I’m sitting back waiting for the clock to tick over, I’ve actively pursuing holidays and moments that we can create together and photo opportunities just so we can have something to look back on in the future.
‘‘It could be a year from now, it could be 20 years from now, it could be a long time, I don’t know.
‘‘I’m optimistic. I’m looking forward to spending time with the kids, however long that is.’’
A Pharmac spokesperson said they were reviewing three applications for the thirdgeneration lung cancer targeted medication Osimertinib.
Clinical advice was being sought on two and the third was going through a prioritisation process to compare and rank funding options.