Kerikeri couple Aurora Passchier and James 'Jimmy' Hawes have been 'super blown away' by the outpouring of community support to raise funds for Hawes's cancer treatment.
Kerikeri couple Aurora Passchier and James 'Jimmy' Hawes have been 'super blown away' by the outpouring of community support to raise funds for Hawes's cancer treatment.
The couple at the centre of a Northland inline hockey fundraiser which raised money for crucial cancer treatment is “super blown away” by the outpouring of community support.
The Northland Stingrays inline hockey club held the event for fellow teammate James ‘Jimmy’ Hawes, who was recently diagnosed with aggressive Stage 4 bowel and liver cancer and may have only weeks or months left to live.
About $18,000 was raised during the event - called Jimmy’s Puck Off to Cancer - which involved a six-hour rolling hockey game held at Bay Sport Stadium in Waipapa on December 3.
Hawes and his wife Aurora Passchier, who live in Kerikeri, said they were “super blown away by the support from the community”.
“For a team I’ve only been playing with for eight months, it was a huge outpouring of support,” Hawes said.
“It was cool to see the amount of people and donations and the effort that’s gone into it, it’s incredible.”
One of the organisers, Sasha Fraser-Nathan, said the community, along with dozens of businesses, really stepped up to help.
There were lots of smaller donations, she said, along with bigger items for the silent auction such as two $500 vouchers from a local chiropractor, a golf experience from Kauri Cliffs, and a wooden carving worth $400 from carver and sculptor Hugh McKechnie.
The “rolling game” of inline hockey was played by various grades, from the under-10s up to the premier team, she said.
James 'Jimmy' Hawes is grateful for the fundraiser organised by Northland Stingrays inline hockey club.
“It was a brilliant day - we couldn’t have asked for anything more.
“There were many tearful moments where the generosity of the community got to us.”
While Hawes, 32, is currently receiving chemotherapy, his oncologist has advised there are unfunded treatments available that could extend his life by months, possibly even years.
This includes Avastin, which is not funded by Pharmac.
The anti-angiogenic drug costs around $20,000 a year, but an additional $1500 each fortnight to administer the drug pushes the cost to around $60,000 a year.
Money raised at the fundraiser was a “huge help” to the couple, and it means Hawes can start on Avastin in January.
“It will really help with taking the stress out of trying to find that money elsewhere,” Passchier said.
“And give us more time to get more funds together.”
Passchier said Avastin should be funded by the Government, or at least be allowed to be administered at public hospitals.
James Hawes and his wife Aurora say the drug Avastin should be funded by the Government, or at least be allowed to be administered at public hospitals.
Currently, on top of the $1500 fortnightly cost, there are travel costs associated with the extra appointments in Whangārei because only private clinics can administer it.
“In every other country it’s standard treatment, it comes with chemotherapy - but in New Zealand, it’s not funded,” Passchier said.
Nicola Hill, the acting chief executive of Cancer Control Agency, a government agency created in recognition of the impact cancer has on the lives of New Zealanders, said it wasn’t possible to have public hospital staff administer unfunded treatments.
“Unfortunately, public hospitals are already at capacity when it comes to delivering the cancer medicines that are funded by Pharmac.
“If unfunded cancer medicines were to be administered in the public hospital setting, this would most likely mean that some people would be unable to receive their funded treatment.”
Passchier said they may not be able to get the circumstances changed for James, but “there are so many people in his situation, and the added stress and effort of having to make a second trip [...] is both expensive and ridiculous”.
Pharmac operations director Lisa Williams said earlier this year, Pharmac declined a funding application for Avastin “for the first and second-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer”.
This decision was made following several recommendations from clinical experts, she said.
“However, this does not prevent Pharmac from reconsidering funding for these medicines for the conditions listed above in the future if, for instance, new evidence or other relevant information that addresses the reasons for the decline decision becomes available.”
Williams said unlike other countries, Pharmac works within a fixed budget.
“While we might like to fund every medicine for every condition, we need to make difficult choices about which items to fund within the available budget.”
