Team Spence vs The Universe

A Note From The Team Members We are 3 friends from Perth, Western Australia, with a common intent:  to help ease the financial burden for Sandi and her family, enabling them to access additional, cutting edge treatments in their fight against Sandi's cancer.  Krissy is Sandi's big sister; Tracey and Kylie are two of Sandi's closest friends.  We are all staunch advocates of Sandi and passionate about helping her in her mission to conquer this horrible disease. Please note all funds generously donated to Sandi's gofundme campaign  will be transferred directly to Sandi and Pete to pay for treatment and travel costs so they can hit the cancer from every possible angle.  The treatments will help build Sandi's immune system and her ability to cope with chemotherapy plus, importantly, improve her quality of life. Sandi’s Story Sandi was a vibrant and active member of her local community when in November 2011 she noticed a red patch on her breast. Within 9 days from that initial appointment, she heard the words that would change her life forever – "you have malignant invasive ductal carcinoma".  It was stage 3 breast cancer with lymph node involvement so treatment would be swift and brutal. She was 42 years of age with a gorgeous 8 year old son Ash and a loving husband Peter.  This was not part of her plan. She started down the conventional path with two surgeries to remove the lump and lymph nodes, which led to painful cording and the first of her many treatment side effects.   CT scans ruled out any action on the head, chest and abdomen which was a relief, however she still had the initial diagnosis to deal with. In November 2011 she started chemotherapy and it was horrific.  By mid-January she had lost all her hair. Things went from bad to worse for Sandi - a permanent line had to be installed due to veins collapsing, and the anxiety during this time was high.  She went into chemical-induced menopause which, again, was swift and unrelenting, causing severe hot flashes.  Shortly thereafter Sandi experienced chest pain which proved to be a blood clot and needed further medication. A chemo change in March 2012 caused an immediate allergic reaction and further complications, however thankfully she finished chemo in May 2012 after a gruelling 6 months, hopefully never to be repeated. Chemo was followed by an equally gruelling regimen of 6 weeks of daily radiation treatments.  By this time, fatigue was at an all time high - and then they put her on tamoxifen. By the end of June all intensive treatments had finished, although Sandi was left with side effects that would plague her throughout the rest of her life until today.  She was told her chance of having a recurrence in 5 years was 80% and, true to their word, it came back. Tree Change In December 2013, after the horrors of the previous months, Sandi and Pete decided to take their beautiful family to Tassie for a tree change, thinking the change of pace would do them all the world of good. Little did Sandi know she had brought her old nemesis with her. Due to the side effects of medication (and, as we now know, the metastasis of the cancer) Sandi suffered from osteoporosis which resulted in a broken big toe, a broken foot, three broken ribs (on separate occasions!) and lastly, in May 2018, she was diagnosed with a fractured vertebra.  All this while trying to run her little hobby farm and look after her family. The Recurrence From June 2017 there were many warning signs that were just not picked up by tests and scans that followed.  Sandi started to experience hip pain which was explained away as bursitis.  In April 2018 a mass was identified on her lumbar spine but once again she was declared clear of metastatic bone disease, and in September 2019 she started to experience severe shoulder pain and was told it was due to lifting her baby granddaughter. She took all these warning signs and the diagnoses from her doctors at face value and she and her husband Pete celebrated their combined 50th and 60th birthdays. Several more signs and misdiagnoses and prescribed medications later, Sandi finally had enough of the pain and went back to her GP where, after further scans, she was diagnosed with metastatic bone disease. The shock of hearing those words brought back all of the pain, fear and anxiety of her initial diagnosis, but a whole lot worse. She was rushed into hospital and started immediately on pain management and more scans to determine the extent of the damage. The results were horrifying - tumours at the base of her skull, in the right shoulder blade, left and right ribs (multiples on each side), down the full length of her spine, in the liver, pelvis and right hip. They were also in the soft tissue around her lumbar spine. This last tumour was compressing the nerve cluster between L3 and L4 causing weakness in her right leg and threatening paralysis, hence the emergency trip to hospital. The Prognosis and Current Status According to Sandi’s oncology team, her condition is incurable. Metastatic bone disease is a terminal diagnosis. The treatments they are offering are designed to slow the progress of the disease and to keep her as well as possible for as long as possible.  The average survival is 3 years from diagnosis; however, her disease was already well advanced by the time she was diagnosed. Sandi has had radiation therapy on 4 of the tumours in an effort to shrink them and reduce some of the pain, and she is now again in chemically-induced menopause.  She has also started oral chemotherapy, however this has hit a snag as blood tests show her immune system is dangerously low, so another round of chemo is off the table at the moment. Now she is in limbo, unable to pursue the most aggressive of conventional therapy and being hampered in following a more alternative approach because of financial pressure and the Coronavirus travel restrictions. So, What Can I Do To Help? So glad you asked!!! Both Sandi and Pete refuse to accept a terminal diagnosis and they’ve been researching all kinds of evidence-based alternative therapies. There is a well-documented treatment called hyperthermia treatment, together with a novel immunotherapy treatment, which are available in Queensland.  Travel restrictions still currently apply and the cost is prohibitive – likely to be around $20,000 including flights and accommodation. There are also some extremely interesting tests that could determine which chemotherapeutic agents as well as natural agents (herbs, nutrients etc) would be best suited to helping Sandi’s body fight her actual type of cancer but, once again, the cost is prohibitive as they are not funded by Medicare - looking at around $3,000 - $6,000 for those tests. Promising research is also being done into t-cell therapies in Wales and the US, but as yet there is no information available on the cost or duration of the trial. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is twofold: 1)    If you are a friend or family member please accept and support Sandi and Pete’s decision-making process.  They are not forgoing conventional therapy in favour of “quackery”.  They are trying to do both but need help with it. 2)    Donate.  Lots of little amounts will make up to a big amount for them and take a HUGE amount of pressure off the choices they are able to make. It's an unfortunate fact that complementary or alternative therapies are not more widely supported by government and medicine in general. There is plenty of evidence to support their use, but just not in the size of trials they’d need to see to change standard treatment protocols. Unfortunately for Sandi and Pete, conventional medicine has no definitive answers for them so they do have to look elsewhere to give themselves the best opportunity for success. In Closing If you have been with us this long, THANK YOU! Sandi has so much to live for. Her gorgeous 16-year-old son who is trying to be strong but has his moments of sadness.  No child should have to watch his mother battle cancer once, let alone twice.  Her amazing soul mate and partner in crime Pete with whom she is planning on celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary next year. And of course the newest apple of her eye, her adorable earth angel – her baby granddaughter. Of course, there are also her friends and family who love her dearly and know that the world will have lost one of its brightest lights if she were to leave it. Sandi, Pete and Ash are not accepting a terminal diagnosis and neither are we, but we need your help to get them there. Please give what you can to help this beautiful family.