Liz, and her husband, Henry, are dear friends of mine. I am the godpa to their eldest kid, Nicholas, and they are godparents to my youngest daughter, Mei. Two years ago, Liz was diagnosed with Stage 4N Non Small Cell Lung Cancer. By the grace of God, she has managed to put up a good fight, and for a year or so, the targetted Chemo drug Tarceva seemed to work well.
Earlier this year, however, scans showed that the drug had stopped working, and the cancer has spread again. They are now embarking on a new form of treatment, which you can read about in Henry's appeal letter below.
Anyway, September is Liz's birthday month, so I would like to dedicate all dough (excuse the pun) raised from cake sales in the first two weeks of September towards her treatment. In all the years I've been blogging, I have never appealed from my friends/readers, but on this occasion, I am asking you if you find it in your heart to contribute to these dear friends of mine, please do so. The photo shows what cakes are available during the first two weeks of September for sale.
You can sms your orders to me at 012-3240988. Do please indicate if you are responding to this note, so I can relay to them who their kind benefactors are.
God Bless you all, my friends.
HENRY'S APPEAL LETTER
Dear friends
We write this in great humility seeking your help and support. As you may know, my wife Liz was diagnosed with 4th Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in June 2009. Subsequent to that we have been on this tremendous journey of faith seeking treatment while trusting God for His healing. (www.lizadventure.blogspot.com )
Since diagnosis, she has been on this targeted therapy drug called Tar! ceva and it had been very effective for her, helping to shrink the tumors in her lung & at one stage even removing the metastasis in her liver.
Unfortunately from the beginning of this year, the drug ceased to be effective and the tumors have continued to grow with the metastasis returning to her liver. Having prayed about it, we did not opt for chemotherapy as we understand its effectiveness to be limited against advanced stage lung cancer.
We then decided to take the path of an alternate treatment using low-dose naltrexone (LDN www.ldn.org) and most recently this herbal Taiwanese drug derived from solamargine which in itself is derived from a herb used in Chinese medicine. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014579304011962)
Recently we were approached by some friends who had come upon an exciting new breakthrough in cancer treatment which had been particularly effective in treating tumours and has been extensively used in China with very good results. This new drug is called Gencidine and is administered intravenously. (www.genetherapyhospitals.com/PatientStory2.html )
The doctor we consulted is both a cardiologist and oncologist (Dr Beh from Heartscan www.heartscan.com.my ) and when he saw Lizs condition he proposed using it together with a cutting-edge new treatment called HITV (Human Initiated Therapeutic Vaccine - http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2010/7/18/health/6614843&sec=health). The therapy involves injecting a patients immature dendritic cells (imDC) directly to the tumour before and after radiotherapy (to reduce the number of cancer cells) and generate an immune response that will kill the cancer cells (through imDC injections).
It certainly looks promising and has already proven effective in many late stage cancer cases. The only flipside is that this treatment with the support treatment of Gencidine is estimated to cost close to RM500k, and as this is an outpatient treatment, insurance will be unable to cover the cost.
Howev er, because of our friends relationship with the doctor, he is willing to lower the cost to RM250,000 for both treatments.
It is with this email that we humbly ask for support from you our friends to help us in our time of need. RM250k is a large sum of money but we want to keep our eyes on God whom we believe will help us.
If you feel moved to help us in any way please could you help transfer funds to my account as follows:
Henry Wong Yuen Kwong
Public Bank Berhad
Branch: SS2 Petaling Jaya
3063772934
SWIFT CODE: PBBEMYKLXXX
As soon as we reach the targeted amount, we will inform everyone so that you can stop remitting funds. In any case, we thank you for your continued prayers. God is the ultimate healer and all the glory in the end belongs to Him. We will keep you updated of her progress and the treatment as well.
Love in Christ
Henry & Liz
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