Happy news

          A conjunction of circumstances has relieved us of the weight of trying to find the shortfall in finances for the fourth dose of Avastin. 

         Our dear friend Trish the Dish, no doubt ably assisted by Gina Ballerina (these are Tracey’s nicknames for them!) continued to raise money for this purpose over past weeks – months, actually. 

         At the same time, Tracey discussed our case with senior people from our health fund – a fund which, is has to be said, was not very helpful at all initially in covering the yawning gap between what we paid out for Avastin in the past three months and what they were offering – and they have agreed that the fund will cover, ex gratia, the extra expense for next month’s treatment beyond that raised by the recent efforts. 

         This means that after this final payment next week, there should be no more payments to the pharmaceutical company for further monthly doses, as the company has a policy of providing further treatments beyond the fourth one without charge. 

         Thus we can enjoy Christmas more than we could have otherwise. We can only thank all those concerned, and those who already helped us financially with earlier payments. I think it has been the hardest thing in my life to accept financial help, but without it… well, let’s just say that Christmas would have been somewhat different this year. 


         Thank you, Trish and Gina. Thank you, Tracey. Thank you, MBF. Thank you, Bruce Watson and Joan Relke and Carl Merton for donating prizes. Thank you, family and friends and all those others who contributed, not forgetting those friends who did earlier fundraising, Laura and Wendy Cannon and Carol Elder and the ADMS.  Thank you all.