Harvey's Brain Tumour Fighting Fund
Donation protected
Dear Friends and supporters of Harvey Witzer,
Hello, My name is Dan Witzer and I am Harvey’s son.
Towards the end of 2020, my dad was diagnosed with a multi-focal and inoperable brain tumour (totally embedded in the central/front part of the brain) called a Glioblastoma 4 multiform.
As you can imagine this earth-shattering news has come as a total shock for all of our family as it was the last thing we imagined when he went into A&E in November with headaches. We had noticed that things were not quite right during the summer but attributed lots of his behaviour to depression, having been furloughed since March and then being made redundant.
However, after a biopsy and then full diagnosis in December the prognosis was vey poor with a timeframe of less than a years survival. As a family we have really struggled to come to terms with this diagnosis and the symptoms of this horrible terminal disease. His quality of life is going to slowly diminish and he will be able to do less and less for himself, as well as losing his cognitive ability to communicate, move around, think and remember.
He is currently undergoing a treatment plan of conventional medicine; radiotherapy and chemotherapy with the view of prolonging life as long as possible within the given timeframe. To date we are happy to say that he has responded well, but the slow deterioration of his memory and cognitive ability has shown signs of decline.
With this in mind we would like to try alternative therapies that will complement conventional treatment and although we know there is no cure for his tumour, we want to give my dad the best fighting chance and allow our family as much time together as possible, but most importantly to ensure his quality of life is as pain-free and as long as possible.
To be able to do this and look into other therapies we are asking for donations to support us with funding of this treatment as well as also raising funds for The Brain Cancer Society to aid with research and support for families suffering the same cruel fate.
Glioblastoma's are a very low-profile cancer in terms of knowledge and research, and this is partly due to the fact of only a 1-2% expected survival rate after diagnosis, with death occuring in the short term for the majority of people, leaving little opportunity to study the tumours. .
To raise this money, we are to planning to ‘Get Harvey and Joanne (My mum) to Fiji' (Metaphorically speaking). This was my parents dream as part of their retirement together as it has been a lifelong ambition of my dad’s to visit the home of one of the most amazing, entertaining and committed rugby teams in the world! (For those of you that do not know my dad, he literally lives, eats, drinks, and breathes Rugby Union).
Our plan and way of thanks for the donations is to ‘Travel’ the distance (10,131 miles) from London to Fiji by cycling, walking, running or any other means possible.
We currently have no end date in mind, but will be continually chipping away at the 10,131 miles over the coming months! My sister will be organising monthly walking and fundraising events (Covid friendly), and has also set up an instagram page to 1) Keep you updated on our Dad's progress, 2) Raise awareness of Glioblastoma, and 3) Keep everyone updated with our mileage chart.
All donations big or small are gratefully accepted, and if you feel you would like to help by doing a few miles yourself please let me know and I can update your miles on our ‘ongoing mileage’ chart.
So from myself, my mum, sister and all of our family we thank you for supporting us and helping to keep this amazing man with us for as long as possible, for helping us to raise awareness of this devastating illness and for supporting a brilliant charity.
Thank you from the Witzers’
Hello, My name is Dan Witzer and I am Harvey’s son.
Towards the end of 2020, my dad was diagnosed with a multi-focal and inoperable brain tumour (totally embedded in the central/front part of the brain) called a Glioblastoma 4 multiform.
As you can imagine this earth-shattering news has come as a total shock for all of our family as it was the last thing we imagined when he went into A&E in November with headaches. We had noticed that things were not quite right during the summer but attributed lots of his behaviour to depression, having been furloughed since March and then being made redundant.
However, after a biopsy and then full diagnosis in December the prognosis was vey poor with a timeframe of less than a years survival. As a family we have really struggled to come to terms with this diagnosis and the symptoms of this horrible terminal disease. His quality of life is going to slowly diminish and he will be able to do less and less for himself, as well as losing his cognitive ability to communicate, move around, think and remember.
He is currently undergoing a treatment plan of conventional medicine; radiotherapy and chemotherapy with the view of prolonging life as long as possible within the given timeframe. To date we are happy to say that he has responded well, but the slow deterioration of his memory and cognitive ability has shown signs of decline.
With this in mind we would like to try alternative therapies that will complement conventional treatment and although we know there is no cure for his tumour, we want to give my dad the best fighting chance and allow our family as much time together as possible, but most importantly to ensure his quality of life is as pain-free and as long as possible.
To be able to do this and look into other therapies we are asking for donations to support us with funding of this treatment as well as also raising funds for The Brain Cancer Society to aid with research and support for families suffering the same cruel fate.
Glioblastoma's are a very low-profile cancer in terms of knowledge and research, and this is partly due to the fact of only a 1-2% expected survival rate after diagnosis, with death occuring in the short term for the majority of people, leaving little opportunity to study the tumours. .
To raise this money, we are to planning to ‘Get Harvey and Joanne (My mum) to Fiji' (Metaphorically speaking). This was my parents dream as part of their retirement together as it has been a lifelong ambition of my dad’s to visit the home of one of the most amazing, entertaining and committed rugby teams in the world! (For those of you that do not know my dad, he literally lives, eats, drinks, and breathes Rugby Union).
Our plan and way of thanks for the donations is to ‘Travel’ the distance (10,131 miles) from London to Fiji by cycling, walking, running or any other means possible.
We currently have no end date in mind, but will be continually chipping away at the 10,131 miles over the coming months! My sister will be organising monthly walking and fundraising events (Covid friendly), and has also set up an instagram page to 1) Keep you updated on our Dad's progress, 2) Raise awareness of Glioblastoma, and 3) Keep everyone updated with our mileage chart.
All donations big or small are gratefully accepted, and if you feel you would like to help by doing a few miles yourself please let me know and I can update your miles on our ‘ongoing mileage’ chart.
So from myself, my mum, sister and all of our family we thank you for supporting us and helping to keep this amazing man with us for as long as possible, for helping us to raise awareness of this devastating illness and for supporting a brilliant charity.
Thank you from the Witzers’
Organizer and beneficiary
Daniel Witzer
Organizer
Joanne Witzer
Beneficiary