There is civil unrest in both New Caledonia and Rafah as conflict continues, the Waitangi Treaty is claimed to have been breached regarding the governments reforms on hospitals.
A Whangārei dad has been given three months to live unless he raises $136,000 for medication to treat his incurable blood cancer.
“Please help save my dad,” said his youngest daughter, Tayla Bennett.
Brett Edwards, 54, was initially diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2022. But it was only last month that his family found out the cancer had come back “quite aggressively”.
A Givealittle page has been set up to help fundraising efforts.
Bennett said they were now awaiting a treatment date and needed to raise enough funds to at least secure a few months of medication.
While his cancer drug Daratumumab would initially cost the family $44,000 a month, the drug company would cover only half of their total expenses as a subsidy.
Without it, Edwards would have anywhere from “a few weeks to a few months to live”.
“The doctors have advised that it is progressing very quickly. He has needed six blood transfusions over the past two weeks, seven units of blood overall and one unit of platelets due to the low haemoglobin levels,” Bennett said.
She recalled the fateful day her dad was diagnosed with cancer.
On a summer day in December 2022, she got a call from her mum asking her to come up to Whangārei immediately.
Bennett who lives in Auckland, drove her way to her parents’ home.
“Usually, she doesn’t ask me to come up urgently. So, I assumed something was wrong straight away. I managed to figure it out that he was diagnosed with cancer.”
But it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that the family found out that Edwards had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer where a type of white blood cells builds up in the bone marrow and form tumours in many bones of the body.
Youngest daughter Tayla Bennett was shocked to hear about her father's incurable blood cancer.
“We were all in shock, there were quite a lot of tears all around and just absolutely gutted. Finding out that it is incurable was an added shock,” she said.
After his diagnosis, Edwards refused to talk about his condition as he didn’t want anyone to get upset.
Following his chemotherapy and stem cell transplant, Edwards was “doing really well.”
He was walking 4km a day, felt energetic and was overjoyed when he was blessed with a granddaughter, Bennett said.
“Unfortunately, once we were told the cancer was back, things took a pretty quick change.
“He’s in pain again and... it feels like there isn’t as much hope as there was last time. He’s very tired and low at the moment.”
She said aside from the cancer, her father also had rheumatoid arthritis which he was diagnosed with about 10 years ago.
Her father was a family man who would do anything for the family and liked to keep himself busy.
Brett Edwards is a family man who likes to keep himself busy.
“When we were growing up, he and mum were living paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes skipping meals, and had the power and phone cut off now and then so that my sister and I could have the things we needed.
“He was the sole income of the family for seven years until we were both in school.”
Bennett said her dad was also on a waiting list for a clinical trial which fortunately would be “fully funded.” And they didn’t consider travelling overseas for treatment as an option as Edwards needed immediate attention.
She was informed that Edwards’ trial may be only a few months away, until then the family needed help to save her dad.
Avneesh Vincent is the crime and emergency services reporter at the Northern Advocate. He was previously at the Gisborne Herald as the arts and environment reporter and is passionate about covering stories that can make a difference. He joined NZME in July 2023.
