Cancer Support

Hello, my name is Gail and my beloved husband & best friend of 31 years has just been diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. Ray has been the most amazing father to our 4 beautiful children, Nikki, Megan, Calvin & Josh and a dedicated husband. He has also been the sole provider for this family, unwavering in his dedication to provide the very best for us all. However, Mantle Cell Lymphoma is an aggressive cancer and requires aggressive treatment. The chemotherapy he is recieving at Groote Schuur Hospital needed to fight this, is extremely strong and toxic (he had to have a scan to determine whether his heart was strong enough to handle it) and has lost a great deal of muscle mass and is exhausted most of the time. Due to this, he has been unable to work as his job entails physical labour, scaling ladders and working on roofs. The chemotherapy best suited to treat Mantle Cell Lymphoma is called Rituximab (which the government hospital he is being treated at cannot finance) and unfortunately costs a staggering R25000.00/$3000.00 per session and he needs between 6 - 8 sessions to achieve remission. (The Rituximab is the only chemo drug on the market that has had unprecedented success with this rare type of cancer and we're doing everything in our power to get him on this course of treatment however, the financial problem is preventing us from achieving this goal.) Once he is in remission, he needs a bone marrow transplant to prevent the cancer from returning and this will give him another chance at life. Any assistance, of any kind would be greatly appreciated.

Please keep us in your prayers and love each other more every day.