Kelly, Joe and Leo Need Urgent Support!
Donation protected
On behalf of Kelly Lerbekmo, wife of Joe Sillitti, mother of Leo (4), daughter of Lorna and Larry, sister to Jeff and Kimberly, niece of Brent and Judy Richards, WE ARE REACHING OUT FOR URGENT HELP!
Kelly and her family received terrible news, causing an urgent need for us to reach out for HELP! After surgery to remove 3/4 of her left lung and four rounds of intense chemotherapy, our beautiful Kelly was told that her cancer has spread to her liver. Our vibrant Kelly tackles things head on, so asked the Oncologist what the prognosis was. All were stunned to tears to hear the Oncologist was only predicting two to three years of life expectancy. A second call from the Oncologist spoke of a drug that could be used in the treatment of this cancer. Kelly has adenocarcinoma with an aggressive cell mutation labelled EGFR EXON 19. The drug is OSIMERTINIB and costs $10,172 a month. As of today none of the costs are covered by the insurance company, pharmacare, or the health system.
• There are other previous generations of this drug. Why does Kelly need Osimertinib in particular? Since the cancer has already spread to the liver, the next step in this cancer's evolution would be for it to, most likely, spread to the brain. Obviously this would be very devastating. Osimertinib has proven in trials to work within and inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the brain. The previous generations have not shown this efficacy.
Kelly, Joe, family members, and friends are under immense pressure to get Kelly the drugs that she URGENTLY needs. The clock is ticking and Kelly can’t wait for the insurance companies or the governments to figure out their involvement. Twelve precious days have already been used up.
We are also looking for other forms of treatment. Kelly has met with a Naturopathic Doctor, that came highly recommended and has previously treated multiple cancer patients. This doctor was very good at explaining that the treatments are to supplement the chemotherapy drugs that are hoped to be used. Treatments include multiple supplements that can help detoxify the liver and tissues in the body, building up immunity, changing the balance of the "bad cells" and killing them off. The main treatment would be an IV vitamin C dosage that would be given 1 - 2 times per week. This is a lot of time, energy and money that would be necessary to do this. In discussing with family - wouldn't anyone exhaust all options for trying to rid yourself of cancer? These treatments, depending on frequency Kelly can manage, would be $1000 - $2000 per month. Kelly would most likely need to reduce her workload to manage this, losing income in the process.
Joe and Kelly are in contact with the Canadian representative for the Mayo Clinic in the United States, along with multiple other clinics within Canada and the US. Currently we are waiting on the release of Kelly's medical records that can be shared with these different institutions to see if there are alternative treatments recommended. If so, this would require paid review of the records, travel, and potentially short term relocation for treatment. Unfortunately there is nothing close to home that can manage any kind of second opinion or alternative diagnosis. If anyone out there has additional helpful information or can send contacts of people that we can reach out to it will be forever appreciated!
WATCH FOR - Family and friends are working feverously on a fund raiser. Plan to attend if you can, dance with Kelly, silent auction, more details to follow!
Together we have a fighting chance to beat this!
Please help if you can. Please forward this message to others.
All donations will be a huge blessing!
Kelly and her family received terrible news, causing an urgent need for us to reach out for HELP! After surgery to remove 3/4 of her left lung and four rounds of intense chemotherapy, our beautiful Kelly was told that her cancer has spread to her liver. Our vibrant Kelly tackles things head on, so asked the Oncologist what the prognosis was. All were stunned to tears to hear the Oncologist was only predicting two to three years of life expectancy. A second call from the Oncologist spoke of a drug that could be used in the treatment of this cancer. Kelly has adenocarcinoma with an aggressive cell mutation labelled EGFR EXON 19. The drug is OSIMERTINIB and costs $10,172 a month. As of today none of the costs are covered by the insurance company, pharmacare, or the health system.
• There are other previous generations of this drug. Why does Kelly need Osimertinib in particular? Since the cancer has already spread to the liver, the next step in this cancer's evolution would be for it to, most likely, spread to the brain. Obviously this would be very devastating. Osimertinib has proven in trials to work within and inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the brain. The previous generations have not shown this efficacy.
Kelly, Joe, family members, and friends are under immense pressure to get Kelly the drugs that she URGENTLY needs. The clock is ticking and Kelly can’t wait for the insurance companies or the governments to figure out their involvement. Twelve precious days have already been used up.
We are also looking for other forms of treatment. Kelly has met with a Naturopathic Doctor, that came highly recommended and has previously treated multiple cancer patients. This doctor was very good at explaining that the treatments are to supplement the chemotherapy drugs that are hoped to be used. Treatments include multiple supplements that can help detoxify the liver and tissues in the body, building up immunity, changing the balance of the "bad cells" and killing them off. The main treatment would be an IV vitamin C dosage that would be given 1 - 2 times per week. This is a lot of time, energy and money that would be necessary to do this. In discussing with family - wouldn't anyone exhaust all options for trying to rid yourself of cancer? These treatments, depending on frequency Kelly can manage, would be $1000 - $2000 per month. Kelly would most likely need to reduce her workload to manage this, losing income in the process.
Joe and Kelly are in contact with the Canadian representative for the Mayo Clinic in the United States, along with multiple other clinics within Canada and the US. Currently we are waiting on the release of Kelly's medical records that can be shared with these different institutions to see if there are alternative treatments recommended. If so, this would require paid review of the records, travel, and potentially short term relocation for treatment. Unfortunately there is nothing close to home that can manage any kind of second opinion or alternative diagnosis. If anyone out there has additional helpful information or can send contacts of people that we can reach out to it will be forever appreciated!
WATCH FOR - Family and friends are working feverously on a fund raiser. Plan to attend if you can, dance with Kelly, silent auction, more details to follow!
Together we have a fighting chance to beat this!
Please help if you can. Please forward this message to others.
All donations will be a huge blessing!
Organizer and beneficiary
Judy Richards
Organizer
Penticton, BC
Kelly Jean Sillitti
Beneficiary