It’s never an easy thing to hear the word “cancer”, let alone a “rare cancer,” but that is what our Dad told us he had. On Easter this year, he broke the news that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma...
It’s never an easy thing to hear the word “cancer”, let alone a “rare cancer,” but that is what our Dad told us he had.
Early May this year, he broke the news that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma - a non-small cell lung cancer (RET gene mutation). His was an obscure type with slowly progressing symptoms, hence this came as a complete shock to us.
The cancer crept up to him slowly, bringing on symptoms of pain and fatigue. He has started the path of chemotherapy, however, at Stage 4, the chances of survival are slim and the cancer is spreading faster than expected.
The latest scans show it has spread to the liver and spine.
There is a medication that is highly recommended by his doctor that has proven successful with other patients like our Dad, however, it’s not currently approved by PBS and comes with significant costs.
Our Dad is 70 years old, a father of 6 children and a grandfather to 10 grandchildren. He has a deep care for his family. He loves his grandchildren dearly - playing with them, telling stories and often buying them new toys. In spite of his condition, he also still makes an effort to regularly visit his mother in the nursing home and talk with her or bring her food. He has continually served the community working with disability patients, personally taking them to do mundane tasks like running errands and taking them bowling, ticking things off their bucket list like watching a movie in the cinemas, or even just keeping them company or having coffee with them.
Our Dad has a strong influence in the religious community, and is actively involved in his local church and prayer group. Despite becoming weaker, he still remains not only mentally but physically persistent - always wanting to go for walks with his wife around the local lake. He has a love for learning new skills, writing, drawing, and most of all - immersing himself in other cultures and languages. Due to his condition, his duties at the church, his hobbies and travels have all had to come to a halt. He has had to not only stop preaching at his church group, but also all of the admin tasks like writing the bulletin and planning the prayer group schedule. He has had to offload this work elsewhere. He can no longer travel to other countries and continue his adventures.
Since he started chemotherapy, he went from being the man with the loudest laugh in the room and a gusto for life, to becoming drastically frailer, and his voice even weaker. Selpercatinib is recommended to help target RET mutations, however, the cost of these tablets are very prohibitive as the medication is not on PBS. This medication will cost $9000 per month - payments which we unfortunately cannot afford to sustain while we are all raising our children.
We are reaching out for support in the community and we would appreciate any help that we can get, no contribution is too small. Watching him struggle every day while knowing that a life-saving treatment exists but is beyond our reach is heartbreaking - please help us give our Dad a fighting chance to create more memories with the family he loves so dearly.
Thank you to my Sponsors
$100
Felix Fabro
$100
Priscilla Lee
$100
Jake Comarmond
$100
Dussadee Bess Royal
I’m sorry this happened to your dad and hope everything will be okay.
$500
Family Marquez
Praying for the healing and fast recovery of Meynardo 🙏 May the Lord Jesus Christ be the provider, healer, and strength during this difficult time.
$100
Beatriz Batista
Beautiful family
$20
Anonymous
$500
Anonymous
$20
Ranita Gall
$100
Shay Ho
$20
Ranita Gall
$100
Naomi & Jessen
$200
Anonymous
$600
Anson Cheng
Get well from Anson and Mama..
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Kerri Siedofsky
$200
Rey And Elvie Parreno Fam
$200
Maja And Jovana Vukovic
$100
Maggie Holland
Get well soon 🌹
$20
Rare Cancers Australia
God Bless Kuya Meynard for speedy recovery 🙏🏼
$20
Anonymous
$10
Anonymous
$500
Anonymous
With love and respect
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Anonymous
God bless you
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Menelin Talisayon
$100
Yasmine De
$30
Bonnie C
$100
Roger Rodriguez
We send our love and support. We'll give when we can ! -Rog and Tiff
$100
Annalise Bagust
$100
Liz Olesen
$50
Chenel Parreno
$100
Kate Walshe
$100
Andrew Koyanagi
$50
Jessica Benhar
Wishing you and your family the best!
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Yasmine De
$100
Sebastian Redman
$100
Anonymous
$100
Anonymous
$100
Yasmine De
$50
Mary Eberle (batu)
Praying for healing and recovery.
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Anonymous
Praying for you and sending love and peace to you, Tito Meynard. 💜 🙏🏻 Czarina.
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Jayanti Pun
$100
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Yu Lin Loh
$50
Steven Liew
$50
Steven Liew
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Uncle Tay
💪🏼
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Uncle Tay
💪🏼
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Lor & Aj De
Sending our blessings
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Nguyen Tran
$200
Shella Quirante
$250
Minh Lina And Myles
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Enam Projects
Get well soon meynardo. Keep on fighting. God bless xxx
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Hui Tze Lim
$100
Suman Dhakal
$100
Anonymous
God bless
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Sofija Vukovic
$50
Sandhya Reshmi
Thinking of you all.
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Puttachad Kelly Sukheerat
$100
Yen And Ian Baltar
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Atish Chand
Get well soon
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Anonymous
❤️❤️ Andy n Alicia
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Sabrina Fong
$100
Sonia Yeo
Wishing you a speedy recovery ❤️
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Maria N
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Anonymous
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Nicole Salamaga Nicole Salamaga
Cannot imagine how I'd feel if this were my dad. Thinking of you all and praying this medication gets added to the scheme asap! X
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Harris Karatzetzos
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Francesca Cabral
$50
Antonio Peters
$70
Steve Roberson
$40
Bel H
$50
Ivan Yapp
$100
Cristiano Domingues
$50
Sophie Vallido
Sending love ❤️
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Mandy Celis
$100
Emma Pala
$100
Yerevan Dilanchian
Get well soon ❤️
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Patricia Lima
$50
Anonymous
$500
Andrea Cancelli
All the best to you and your family Rohan
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Hui Tze Lim
$300
Anonymous
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Katerina & Richard Wise
$50
Arianne Milan
$100
Siti Shafruddin
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Jenny Vi Cooper
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Thomas Pliska
$300
Anonymous
Stay strong bro
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Cameron Cole
$50
Ji Y
$100
Audrey Zhang
$100
Sapana Rajbanshi
$50
Tresna Gillis
$20
Anonymous
Get well soon
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Desi Komakis
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Michelle M Kim
Sending the family love & prayers x
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Nick Jennion
$50
Matt Hird
Good Luck with getting better
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Eric Lee
$50
Paolo Protacio
$105
Anonymous
Our greatest wish is for you to be well again🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Louisa King
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Jenny Pham
$50
Akash Shrestha
My all best wishes
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Rahul Chaudhary
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Amanda Solano
$50
M B
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Josh Welke
$50
Omar Candelaria
$200
Natalie Wang
Hang in there ❤️
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Richard And Kate Vines
With our very best wishes. Stay strong.
$1,000
Ceres & Nelson Parreno
Healing prayers Daddy
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Ben Jefferies
$100
James Tsaousidis
$50
Bianca Tini Brunozzi
$100
Simon Flanders
$50
Michael Ellul
$100
Chenel Parreno
Sending love and prayers Lolo <3
$50
Alex D’apice
$50
Mitch M
Wishing you all the best in your recovery journey. Stay strong.
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Alanah Manticos
❤️❤️❤️
$50
Eloise Sloniec
❤️
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Jayson Osborne
$50
Lee Northam
$20
Bassal Barakat
all the best for him man
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Sandy Yong
$40
Aim Sirampuj
☀️
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Jims Cellars
Best of luck Meynardo. Rohan is a great son.
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K1 R1 De Chaudhary
$250
Gus Gilkeson
$200
Masateru Saimaru
Get well
$50
Kristijan Sintic
🤞
