Help Mark beat brain cancer

UPDATE: In April this year we were all packed up and ready to head to Germany for treatment when we were delivered the devastating news at my routine scan that another tumour had appeared!!

I was then put on chemotherapy in the attempt to shrink and eventually eliminate the tumour. I have now received 3 months of chemo but unfortunately have not reacted well to the treatment. After recent scans also revealed that the tumour has increased in size the specialists have made the decision to stop the chemo.

We are now in even more desperation to get to Germany. We are booked in to start treatment the 19th September 2016.

xoxo

(Original story below)

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My name is Mark Sullivan. I’m 32 years of age, last year I married the love of my life Estelle. Estelle and I recently welcomed into the world our beautiful daughter Matilda. We live in Sydney and until my illness I was a Surveyor.

In February 2014 I was diagnosed with a large brain tumor in the centre of my brain. Symptoms developed very quickly and I was rushed to Hospital where I was operated on as a matter of urgency. The excision of the tumor (a malignant high grade 111 anaplastic astrocytoma) required two major operations during the course of the next two days, followed by 6 weeks of intensive radiotherapy.

Thanks to the skill of my surgeon, I survived, but have residual damage – no right peripheral vision (totally blind on my right side) in both eyes (so, I cannot drive or work), poor memory function, no sense of smell, always feel hungry, and an inability to know when I’ve had enough to eat – However, and more importantly, my survival chances are poor without cutting edge therapy that is only available at the Duderstadt clinic in Germany.

The Duderstadt treatment is known as Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy. Their success rates have been remarkable. Essentially the technology uses my own cells that are removed, treated and then returned, but before the clinic would accept me for treatment I was required to have some very specific blood tests done - This I did and fortunately I am a good fit!

The initial treatment is 12 days, which is then followed by four, one-day treatments each about 30 days apart. In other words I would be treated over a continuous 5-month period. Once the initial 5-month treatment is over I will have to return to Germany every 4 months for a number of years to receive followup treatments.

The cost of the treatment combined with travel and accommodation costs is about $110,000. We unfortunately don’t have this.

I want to live as long as possible and therefore humbly ask for your help via a donation of any kind towards my treatment. Time is of the essence. Whatever you can do for me will be greatly appreciated.

To view the full version of my story, please click on the PDF below.

Thank you.