Help Satyaa access treatment to overcome stage 4 cancer

Dear friends, family and anyone who kindly wants to help,

We need your help. I’m reaching out with a very sad heart because my darling partner Satyaa (Susanne) has recently received a terminal cancer diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile duct, which has a very bad prognosis with not much time left to live. After being very sick and spending 3 weeks in a hospital on the Gold Coast, we were hoping that she was eligible for life-saving surgery (resection) and we travelled to Sydney to see a surgeon, who is an expert in this field. Unfortunately, after more testing and another 10 days in hospital we received the devastating news that Satyaa would not be eligible for surgery, because the cancer has already spread. We were told that there is no cure, and all treatments presently available in Australia are highly toxic chemotherapy and immunotherapy that have severe side effects. While these toxic treatments may at best prolong Satyaa’s life by a little bit, they will severely impact on her quality of life. This has left us very with limited options, especially within Australia.

However, in the USA an FDA approved non-invasive treatment called Histotripsy is available. Histotripsy is an ultrasound-based cancer treatment that uses targeted sound waves to break down tumours without the need for surgery or radiation. Clinical trials indicate that Histotripsy has shown a high success rates of 85-95%, particularly for treating liver tumours, which includes cholangiocarcinoma. Unfortunately, as this treatment is not yet available in Australia we need to travel to the USA for Satyaa to receive this potentially life-saving, or at the very least non-invasive and non-toxic life-prolonging treatment. As insurance does not cover overseas treatments we have to pay out of our own pockets for the treatment. The Histotripsy procedure alone costs 50,000 USD (approx. 80,000 AUD) plus we need to pay for flights and expenses,.

We urgently need your kind help to make it possible for Satyaa to have the Histotripsy treatment and would be immensely grateful for your donations. Because the cancer is spreading we are running out of time and Satyaa needs the treatment as soon as possible. She has been approved to have the treatment in a couple of weeks, so we need your donations as soon as possible.

Your support means the world to us!

With love and gratitude,

Paul & Satyaa