Help Cass Fight Cancer

Our Cassie Johnston, she turned 33 on the 14 January 2020. She is a single mother and sole carer to two beautiful children. Jack who will be 4 in February and Maddison who will be 2 in July. In April 2019, she had a tumour removed from her right ring finger which was biopsied and confirmed to be malignant. She was then sent for a full body PET scan which showed no other signs of disease. After further testing to determine the cancer type, it was reported to be an aggressive and very rare soft tissue cancer, clear cell sarcoma. Sarcoma has to be managed by a multidisciplinary team found mainly in major cities. She then relocated back to my hometown of Newcastle for family support. In June, her medical team in Sydney amputated her finger and removed lymph nodes for testing. The lymph nodes were disease free, the surgical margins were disease free and she was declared cancer free &  placed into the monitoring phase. On 20 Dec 2019 during a routine PET scan, the results that she was told were "not good". Her sarcoma specialist then started reading a list of where the cancer had showed up in several soft tissue around her body. Cassie is about to be trialed on a potent targeted therapy, she hoping to explore all options available to her; clinical trials, tumour DNA sequencing tests.  With two little ones, she needs a lot of support, particularly financial to help pay for treatment, testings and living expenses as she will have to step back from work. Treatments for a rare and aggressive cancer are costly and unfortunately she is not able to access the recommended treatment due to it not being on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, cannot be accessed through Medicare  and is too expensive for her to buy.  Any donation, large or small will be very much appreciated and we hope to see many of our friends and families share this to raise awareness of the situation and promote all fundraising events and opportunities.