Living with HER 2 Metastatic breast cancer with no access to Herceptin in state hospitals

In 2016 my mom was stage 3C when she was diagnosed which is the stage right before metastatic breast cancer, she went through chemo, double mastectomy and radiation. Then in August 2018 she had a recurrence in her lungs and now my mom’s tumours have doubled in size since her recurrence last year this time, she has new spots on her liver and in her lungs which is life threatening.. She has a her 2 positive cancer which only makes up 20% of the breast cancer diagnosis. This cancer is much more aggressive, however there are targeted treatments like Herceptin but it costs more thank R13 000($936,31) every 3 weeks which she would need a lifetime supply of.. this treatment has saved many lives but this treatment is not available in the state hospitals in South Africa, we have tried accessing it and eventually gave up and tried an holistic approach. It’s so sad that many woman have died trying to access this treatment.

After meeting with her oncologist and doing endless amount of research and begging for answers, we finally came to a conclusion that she might be able to get Herceptin every 3 weeks for R13 000 which is better than saying we need R250 000($18006,00) to save a life.

"LONG-TERM follow-up of trastuzumab (Herceptin)combined with standard chemotherapy shows excellent disease-free survival rates of about 70% to 75% at 10 years and overall survival rates ranging from 80% to 85%, depending on the study." https://www.ascopost.com/issues/december-10-2018/management-of-her2-positive-breast-cancer/

She has been on this journey for 3 years trying to save her life while also trying to enjoy each day with the anxiety of cancer. My mom will not give up this fight, she is trying everything she can to save her life, she is a warrior!