Hi everyone, thank you for looking at my post! I’m John and I have cancer.

I am a small business operator who supports four families through my business operations on Vancouver Island. I have a loving wife, Kirsten who has stood by me through the last seven years of multiple cancer diagnoses and helps me keep our business (and life) afloat. I have a loving mixed up family and friends who have supported me though this ongoing trauma.

I have a rare condition called Lynch Syndrome, an immunocompromising disease that does not allow my body to properly repair its cellular structure. The disease is genetically transferred from parent to child in a regressive gene. As a result of this disease I have had to deal with three diagnoses of cancer, colon cancer and ampulla cancer (Pancreas and gall bladder) and cancer of the peritoneum and kidney all of which I have managed to survive, so far, thanks to our wonderful medical care system in British Columbia.

Despite a year of treatment with chemo therapy and major surgeries I still have cancer. We cannot tolerate any more chemo therapy. 

Throughout my chemo therapy my Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency has been trying to obtain Immunotherapy for my condition. He has been clear, that this would be the best route for treatment of my condition.

According to my oncologist, immunotherapy is a better and more easily tolerated treatment and approved by Health Canada for my condition. Immunotherapy would be available to me through BC Cancer Agency if I did not suffer from Lynch Syndrome. It is routinely given to people suffering from more common cancers such as colon cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and melanoma. Without putting too fine a point on this, cancers that receive regular public attention and political support to prevent and cure. Some such cancer’s such as many lung cancer cases are life style disorders resulting from long term exposure to cigarette smoke. On the other hand my genetically linked disease is no fault of my own. 

According to the research I have been able to collect and according to my oncologist, immunotherapy is a successful treatment for Lynch Syndrome patients. Immunotherapy has been especially helpful in people with Lynch Syndrome as it seems to correct the “cell repair” function that causes the problem in the first place.

When my oncologist first presented immunotherapy as a possible treatment the assumption was that I would be on the treatment for the rest of my life at a cost of $ 100,000.00 per year. Recently, I have learned that this may not be the case. New research indicates that the treatment could permanently correct my condition in as little as a year. Despite this new understating BC Cancer and the BC Ministry of Health will still not fund my treatment.

I have found a way to obtain the treatment I need in Canada under the supervision of an oncologist that does not work with the BC Cancer Agency. However, the treatment will cost me nearly $11,000.00 per dose (every three weeks).

Therefore I am reaching out to you to help me fund my treatment.

Thanks so much for reading my story and for any help you can provide.