Napier's Sarah Barr with her young family: husband Jack and children Emma, 4, and Hugo, 1. Photo / Connull Lang
Napier's Sarah Barr with her young family: husband Jack and children Emma, 4, and Hugo, 1. Photo / Connull Lang
Napier’s Sarah Barr was about 13 when her mum died of melanoma, leaving her an orphan.
Barr is now fighting her own skin cancer battle, determined not to let her children lose their mother in the same way.
However, she has had to fund much of her melanoma treatment herself, with generous supporters helping her raise over $90,000 through a Givealittle page.
“I know how devastating it is to lose your parents at a young age, and there is just no way I am going to let that happen to my kids. Just none. It is just too hard,” the mum-of-two said of her decision to self-fund her immunotherapy.
“That was a really big factor in deciding to have kids, just like ‘what if I’m not there for them and what if I can’t provide for them?’
“Now that I have them I’m like ‘no way am I going anywhere’.”
She was diagnosed with stage three melanoma last August after being misdiagnosed twice, and went under the knife at Hawke’s Bay Hospital to have the cancer cut out of her arm.
Barr has since started a year-long immunotherapy treatment called Keytruda, which significantly reduces the chance of the cancer recurring.
“It is similar to chemotherapy and radiation in that everybody reacts to it differently ... but you don’t lose your hair.”
However, it has been a huge struggle to get that treatment.
Unlike neighbouring Australia, it is not subsidised in New Zealand for her stage and type of melanoma.
That is despite the likes of Melanoma NZ urging Pharmac in recent years to make it more widely subsidised and accessible.
“With stage three melanoma, basically the chance of reoccurrence is really high, and the specific type that I have has a really high growth rate,” Barr said.
“So the suggested treatment [after surgery] is to get Keytruda.
“It is not funded in New Zealand if you are stage three, only if you are stage four.”
Melanoma rates are relatively high in New Zealand. Photo / NZME
She said it was absurd in her mind to wait for the cancer to reoccur and spread as stage four (advanced melanoma) before getting the treatment through the public health system.
The public health system currently supports “active surveillance” of patients once they have had surgery to cut out stage three melanoma, which involves an ultrasound once every six months.
Barr said she had been completely blown away by all the support since deciding to go ahead with Keytruda treatment privately at Canopy Cancer in Hastings.
“I believe in people, but I just couldn’t fathom the generosity of people, including people I don’t even know. It is amazing and overwhelming.”
Her best friend started the Givealittle page and the aim is to raise over $100,000 to fund the year-long treatment and drug.
Pharmac advice and assessment director David Hughes said the government organisation subsidised the treatment for those with “metastatic or unresectable” melanoma stage three or four, but not resectable (cut out) stage three melanoma.
“Pharmac is considering a funding application for pembrolizumab, branded as Keytruda, received in February 2019, for the treatment of resected stage three melanoma,” he said.
“Our Cancer Treatments Advisory Committee recommended funding pembrolizumab for treating this type of cancer with a low priority in November 2021. This application is currently under assessment.”
In terms of what is currently offered in the public health system, Cancer Control Agency general manager Nicola Hill said once stage three melanoma had been cut out and removed through surgery, including any lymph nodes, patients were closely monitored for its recurrence.
“It is recommended that patients are followed up after removal of their melanoma using ultrasound of the surrounding lymph nodes every six months by an experienced sonographer for the first three years.
“This treatment is sometimes called active surveillance.”
Barr is managing director of pole dancing studios in Auckland and also an instructor at Altitude Aerials Napier, but has had to step back from her work this year.
“My number one job is to heal and to raise enough money for the treatment for healing - that is it.”
She gave a special thank you to her husband, Jack, who has been “amazing” supporting her and the children.
People can donate on her Givealittle page by visiting that website and searching “help our beloved Sarah heal from cancer”.
