Help Me Fight Bone Cancer - Tibby

Help me fight my battle with Multiple Myeloma Bone Cancer. 

In December 2018, I saw my family doctor as I was having slight pain in my left leg and he thought it was Sciatica and recommended medicine for it. I switched my family doctor in February to get a second opinion and the new doctor was suspicious that it was something more serious straight away. He sent me to have special lab tests and CT scan done urgently to look for some protein markers in the blood and unfortunately, he was right. After seeing the results, he referred me to the Oncologist to confirm my diagnoses.

The Cancer Clinic diagnosed me with Multiple Myeloma Bone Cancer in March 2019. I was lucky that I went to get a second opinion and caught the cancer at an early stage.

Slowly the Cancer deteriorated my health and it made it very difficult to get out of bed, walk around and complete my day to day tasks. In April, I went through the Radiation therapy, where the doctors caught a tumor on my lower spine. The Therapy lasted about 5 days, which took away the pain and I was able to walk again with assistance.

In May, I went for my full body CT Scan and the doctors decided on the type of Chemotherapy and the medication I need to get better. Right now, I’m getting Chemo treatment every Friday in Kelowna, which will go until November.

This Chemo is done in cycles and one cycle is four Chemo treatments. For the time being, I’m going to have 6 to 7 cycles to complete this part of the treatment. This treatment is being completed in Kelowna, which is very convenient to me as I live in Peachland.

After this Chemo treatment is completed in Kelowna, the next step is the Stem Cell Transplant, which can only done at the Vancouver Hospital.

The doctors will be using my own stem cells for The Stem Cell Transplant, there is no donation for this type of treatment. Before the doctors do the Transplant, they will give me an aggressive Chemo treatment to break down my immune system to destroy as much bone marrow as possible because that’s what is causing the Myeloma Bone Cancer. After this Chemo, the doctors will inject my healthy steam cells into my body to clone healthy bone marrow cells.

This Stem Cell Transplant treatment plus recovery takes about 5-6 weeks and during this time I need to be in Vancouver near the hospital with someone by my side 24 hours a day. Luckily, I have my wife, Marika who has been and will be by my side every step of the way.

The Stem Cell Transplant is an outpatient treatment, which means that I’m only at the Hospital for the first few days and then for rest of the time I need to find my own accommodation near the Vancouver Hospital and go in for daily check-ins and monitoring for the entire 5-6weeks. During this period, nobody is working as I will be going through my treatment and Marika will be taking time off work to help me in Vancouver.

I have opened this GoFundMe account to help raise funds to cover the cost of living during our 5-6 weeks’ time in Vancouver. As everyone knows Vancouver is quite expensive and both of us not working doesn’t help this situation. I have estimated the cost to be around $1,000 per week for accommodation, food plus all the other normal expenses, which takes us to around $5,000-$6,000 for the total cost. I will need the funds for November when I go to Vancouver for the final treatment.

Every little amount counts and I will be forever thankful for your support. Also, if you live close to the Vancouver Hospital or know someone who does, that will help me greatly.  

Every little bit helps. Thank you very much!

Tibby  & Marika