Hope for Hein: Help Fund Life-Saving Leukaemia Treatment

Hein's Story

During December 2023 my life suddenly changed: A seemingly ordinary pain in my side turned out to be serious enough for me to be hospitalised. After 1 round of tests, a devastating diagnosis emerged: Leukaemia.

Just like that.

Together with the ice-cold, surreal, bone-jarring shock that all was lost, that it was finally Game Over, there was the desperate, tenacious voice in the back of my head that it couldn't end like this - not after everything I had to endure, overcome & experience in life, a 52 year old man who outlived Apartheid, witnessed its demise, and laughed in the face of all of it's adversity.

All my adventures were in vain!

But this couldn't be The End.

This couldn't be my "That's All Folks!"

I wouldn't let it.

I have children I want to see get married; have offspring of their own, watch them grow up!

Wifey & I decided that my life & time on Earth were far from over, and my oncologist concurred.

All I had to do was stay on the prescribed medical treatment plan, stay healthy & keep my mind strong. It was not an immediate death sentence like back in the day anymore. Medical science has advanced in leaps & bounds.

So...

Easy, right?

But it's not a straight road.

We progressed through 4 sets of different targeted treatment medications, until the current - Bacrelba - finally started showing results during my first PCR testing at the end of June! But at an astronomical cost (as far as our pockets are concerned!)

Before the Pandemic hit us, our finances took a bit of a knock. We had to take in my in-laws, who had fallen on hard times, to stay with us. That meant spending to extend the house to make space. Then, not soon after, we had to also take in my own parents, for the same reason. Again we had to scramble to a plan to make space. So now we have a full house, full of septuagenarians (!) and us "Young 'Uns". That brings its own expenses.

The pandemic gave us a smack-down employment-wise as well as health-wise, with Wifey, our daughter & myself ending up in hospital, and me confined to ICU on oxygen for 3 weeks. Finances became very tight.

Just when we seemed to have found our financial footing again, cancer happened.

And the ballgame changed.

The next curve-ball was the Medical Aid company, Bonitas, refusing to further extend my oncology benefits unless we upgraded our Medical Plan.

More expenses.

We upgraded, but the oncology benefits apparently ran out in June 2024, and the GAP Cover company balked & reneged. We are engaged, with Wifey at the spearhead, in an ongoing fight with both the Medical Aid & GAP Cover companies to keep supplying my life-saving benefits, but like all insurance companies, they're not in it for PEOPLE, but for PROFITS.

We had to pay for July & August out of our own pockets - with money we just did not have and expenses we just could not afford.

This month a foreign friend & benefactor unexpectedly offered to pay for 3 month's supplies of my life-saving targeted treatment!

The world is full of good people - they are all around us, and they make less noise than the bad, but they are there in abundance!

David & Mary from Australia, from the bottom of my heart & my family's: "Baie, baie dankie!"

However, despite this extremely generous donation in progress, the shortfall for 2024 could still prove to be devastating, and we are concerned about the anticipated shortfall for 2025, hence having to resort to a GoFundMe to be ready in advance.

So our immediate goal is to try and raise 7 months' worth of life-saving funds, at a cost of 40,000 South African Rands per month (£1,727) = R280,000 (£12,098).

The oncologists reckon that 2 years on Bacrelba, (a branded asciminib) a type of protein kinase inhibitor targeted treatment, should be enough to get me out of the immediate danger zone to fall back onto less expensive targeted treatment like ematinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

My Life Story must go on.

I've still got things to do, places to go, people to meet, and with your help, I will stay around on this Earth for quite a while longer to be able to achieve all those things.

Well, now that I've told part of my story, here's hoping for the best.

Thank you for reading and have a good day!