Urgent! Help Mark Bell Beat Lung Cancer in BC!

Together we can rally to save a life! Beginning August 2021 there’s a new drug combination for Mark but it is terribly expensive at $16,600 a month!

 

Mark needs your help. He has Stage 4 lung cancer threatening to take him from his family, friends and community. He’s explored almost all medical options and has worked diligently to overcome cancer with the support of many. New hope is on the horizon with a match for targeted gene therapy.

 

These drugs are very promising; he is part of the 3% that has a rare genetic match to have success. This is not a “shotgun” approach. It is targeted gene therapy that goes after the specific genes or cells that help cancer grow and survive. This could be the miracle we have been waiting for at the 11th hour, but we have to buy it privately and it’s very expensive.

 

This is Mark’s last chance. He’s tried everything: diet, exercise, seen a naturopath, had immunotherapy, radiation, chemotherapy, counselling, energy work, supplements and more.

 

Nicolas, Mark’s caring 8 year old son, tries to keep Mark’s spirits up with daily calls to the Cancer Clinic. His loving and devoted family is doing everything possible to save Mark. He is a strong contributing member in his Northern community and is loved by many.

E-transfers: Please email [email redacted]  for details

 

Meet the Amazing and Capable Mark Bell

 

The first thing that everyone says about Mark is “he’s such a nice guy” and he truly is. He’s got a very strong and giving spirit and has moved mountains in his life so far.  He is a proud Metis citizen and a long serving board member on the Prince Rupert and District Metis Society.

 

Mark works hard and is resilient. Staring with overcoming multiple surgeries for a clubfoot in his childhood, he went on to become Canadian Martial Arts Champion when he was 20.

 

Learning from master shipwrights, he is one of the last wooden boat specialists on the Pacific Coast. He’s the guy you call to get your boat floating and looking good or to build you something fabulous out of wood.

 

 

Not content with mastership in his craft, he and his wife also went on to single-handedly restore the Cassiar Cannery privately, an enormous project that has spanned 15 years, and cost blood, sweat and tears but restored a vital heritage operation on the Pacific Northwest Coast.

 

 

Having his son Nicolas in his 40’s meant Mark rediscovered the joys of family, playfulness and connection. Things were going very well until Christmas 2019.

 

Christmas 2019: It’s Just a Sore Rib

Everything was fine, both personally and professionally with Mark Bell and his family, Justine Crawford and six-year old son, Nicolas, when Mark developed a sore rib.

 

February 2020: Devastating Birthday News: It’s Not Just a Sore Rib

Imagine receiving the devastating news on your 48th birthday that this pain had such a sinister base; that this vibrant, skilled, 48 year old man did, in fact, have a genetic form of lung cancer. Even worse, it was already in Stage 4 having metastasized from his lungs to his ribs. His pain was his rib dissolving from a tumour growing on the outside of his rib cage.

 

The bottom fell out of our world. How did everything go from outstanding to absolutely awful in such a short time?

 

March 2020: COVID Arrived and How Things Changed

COVID arrived in BC. COVID and lung cancer are a deadly combination. We had to shut our businesses down to protect Mark. The medical system was in panic-mode preparing for an influx of patients. Demands on the healthcare system created huge delays in getting Mark a comprehensive treatment plan.

 

From being diagnosed in February, it wasn’t until June, four long months later that he was told he had matched for a single type of immunotherapy and could begin treatment.

 

Summer 2020: Old Before His Time

Finally Mark started treatment with great hope and enthusiasm from his family. After a few cycles, the tumours in his lungs were shrinking but the one on his rib had a mind of its own. Mark was in serious pain now – all the time. He started to walk through the house hunched over like an elderly man cradling his wound.

 

He changed his diet, cutting out all sugar and carbs, which feed the cancer first. Between the rib tumour and the diet, he lost weight. He lost strength. He was popping Tylenol and Advil like candy to try to escape the pain. But he was able to putter in his shop, go for hikes and play with his son, now seven.

 

 

 

Fall 2020: Rib Tumour Bursts Through Skin

The tumour on his rib started to swell like two little fists under his skin. Then they burst through the skin, opening an enormous suppurating wound. Despite their best efforts, doctors had a tough time diagnosing why. His immunotherapy was working on the tumours in his lungs but slower on the ribs.

 

Surgery wasn’t an option in the beginning as that’s the policy for Stage 4 cancer patients. The surgeons now wanted to operate. The oncologists did not. His immunotherapy was suspended for three months while doctors tried to determine what was happening.

 

Between this and COVID protocols, he fell through the cracks a bit while healthcare teams were dealing with waves of COVID-19 patients and had strict hospital protocols in place. Imagine receiving all this devastating news on your own. Families could not attend appointments. Friends and family could not visit. Healthcare professionals were stressed and exhausted.

 

Winter 2020: Pain Hell

The pain became worse. Mark now needed Tylenol 3s. He started antibiotics. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t work and had trouble playing with Nicolas. He became very depressed. We all did.

 

Spring 2021: Medical Professionals are Confounded

The pain and discomfort had become unbearable now. Mark was walking around the house doubled over. He started with hydro-morphone for the pain and couldn’t sleep. He has been sad and befuddled from all the drugs. The doctors were still struggling to determine a course of care for his side.

 

Was it a radiation burn, necropsy, an infection? Nobody could figure it out. The festering wound on his side was now 6” x 6” – open to the muscles underneath and weeping. Nobody had seen this. He was in and out of the hospital as they tried to figure out what to do. They started antibiotics again.

 

June 2021: Cancer Clinic Rallies

With COVID, this was the first time he has seen his oncologist in person from being diagnosed in February 2019. That’s 16 months. He is at the Cancer Clinic under care of the oncologists for what was supposed to be 12 days. He’s been there for seven weeks getting IV antibiotics daily, seeing specialists and counselling for his mental health. Imagine being away from your family, mostly alone because of COVID protocols for seven weeks. He has been on all types of antibiotics for four months.

 

Mid-July 2021: A New and Expensive Hope

Mark’s primary oncologist called Mark quite excited. One of our Rupert doctors took a very good biopsy and researchers found a match with a form of gene therapy currently used to treat melanoma.

 

The medicine is from Novartis; it is a combination drug called Mekinist and Tafinlar. It has a very high success rate of 60%. Mark is part of the 3% of the population that has a rare genetic match to have success with these drugs. This part of the story is awesome; the next part not so much. The drug is $13,000 USD a month. We felt our heads disconnect for a moment learning this news. The costs are staggering.

 

End-of-July 2021: Seeking Assistance On All Avenues

Mark’s doctors are trying hard to help cover the cost of these promising drugs. They have asked the board of BC Cancer but they said “no” so far as it’s currently not approved by Health Canada for Mark’s type of cancer but is approved for melanoma. We have written to our MLA to see if PharmaCare can assist but it is not likely.

 

The Pfizer drugs (there are two working in concert) was recently undergoing clinical trials using these pills to treat lung cancer successfully but the trials just recently closed. He missed it by weeks. There is a lung cancer patient in Prince George currently using this form of treatment with success. The oncologists have reached out directly to the pharmaceutical companies to see if there is a way to help with the costs. At the moment, they are only willing to cover 20% leaving our family to cover $16,600 a month.

 

Mark is now off the antibiotics. He wants to regain control over his body and has stopped, cold-turkey, on the hydro-morphone for a week and ceased taking sleeping pills. He is working so hard to overcome the pain and discomfort to seize the reins to steer his recovery.

 

August 2021: GoFundMe Campaign Saves a Life

We need to raise $16,600 CDN a month for a year. One year of drugs is almost $200,000 – an almost unfathomable number and a huge burden on one family.

 

 

Your Support Can Save Mark’s Life and Keep Our Small Family Intact

 

His son, only 8 now, could grow up with his dad, who is very engaged, present and dearly loves his son.

 

It takes a lot of effort to do what we have done and we have paid a steep price resurrecting the Cassiar Cannery for hundreds of other people to come, enjoy and heal. He needs a combination of deep rest and these hyper-focused drugs. We are nearly out of options.

 

We had to close last year, and go into debt, to protect Mark from this respiratory virus that could be fatal for him. We pulled our son from school to homeschool him during the COVID outbreak in Prince Rupert.

 

He deserves the chance to enjoy the rest of his life and to watch his son grow into the amazing man he will become. He desperately wants to live, to come home, to be with his family and to get behind his sawmill and into his wood shop again. Mark is always there with a helping hand, boxes of kindling for elders and to share his skills with others. Now he needs our help.

 

This could be Mark’s last chance. He’s tried everything and up for trying anything. These drugs are very promising; he is part of the 3% of the population that has a rare genetic match to have success with these drugs. This could be the miracle we have been waiting for at the 11th hour. This is not a “shotgun” approach. It is targeted gene therapy that goes after the specific genes or cells that help cancer grow and survive.

 

If you are able to donate anything at all towards this expensive drug, it is more appreciated than you can imagine. Every dime counts. He needs to get started asap.

 

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for reading this.

 

From our family to yours…..thank you!

 

Mark, Justine and Nicolas