Please Help.

Roalds Mother has gone and done research and read many case studies and there is a drug called Temozolomide which has been used world wide with a lot of success and in order for his mother to get hold of this drug here in South Africa she would have to do it via the private sector which would cost R500.000
And if we can raise enough money Roald will be able to do both treatments.
Radiation alone is not going to help.

For those of you whom may or may not know Roald Dickson, this year has been life changing for him and his family. He is very smart, talented artistically, never complains, never says a bad word about anyone. HE HAS A HEART OF GOLD.

Due to his medical condition at the beginning of the year where we found out that Roald has a brain tumor called Glioblastoma Multiform.

It all started when Roald was at home alone, he experienced his first seizure at the end of March this year 2016.

He was meant to go into work that afternoon but did not make it due to the seizure.
No one knew what was going on, where he was, not picking up his cell phone and this was because he was sleeping after the seizure.
Roald himself was unaware that he had a seizure, when he eventually woke up to a bump and blood on his head and vomit all over the room, he knew something was up.
He woke up not remembering family, friends and that he had even had a job. worked, who he worked with

Roald’s mother had called him the following day to say ‘hello’ and and he had said that he was not feeling well, so his mother decided to come down to Cape Town. From there when she arrived he was taken to his local doctor who said that he needs to go hospital immediately.
When they both got to the hospital, they waited a very long time before getting any form of help.
Once they were both helped by a doctor, all the doctor could say was that he had a stomach bug and gave him medication for that and he was sent home.

His mother decided that there was no way that he could stay by himself and she wanted to keep a close eye on him so she took him home to Agulhas.

Not long after Roald had been staying with her he had another two seizures, this time Roald had stopped breathing on his own, back to the hospital they went and now doctors are freaking out as well as the family and friends because we did not know what was causing the seizures as the doctors told us that it was a stomach bug.

From there the ambulance arrived and took him through to Worcester Hospital when he awaited a CT scan and many tests.

He was kept in hospital for about two weeks, then transferred to Tygerberg neurology.
Tygerberg then performed a MRI scan to get clearer information on the type of tumor that they were dealing with.

The MRI and CT were then sent to other hospitals and brain tumor specialist for further evaluation, we waited weeks and weeks for the doctors to get back to us with some form of information regarding the tumor and when they finally got back to us and we were told that the biopsy was going to be skipped and go straight a head and take the tumor out.

Now it all gets a little more complicated because Roald doesn’t have medical insurance everything was done through government hospitals, so the waiting list gets pretty long and for him and his mother now have to come up with a solution to how they were going to pay the medical bills as each day in hospital was getting more and more expensive, baring in mind that Roald hadn’t been working for months because he was incapable of doing so.

When doctors eventually diagnosed Roald with the brain tumor, they were then able to prescribe him with the correct medication while he was on the waiting list for the brain surgery which was a two month wait, it could have been longer.
Roald caught the flu and with his immune system so low, because the medication he was given.
He started getting intense head aches and was taken back to hospital where they did more MRI AND CT scans to determine why his head was hurting intensely and it was because he was down with the flu and this caused swelling to the brain.

This time round in hospital the doctors had decided it was time to take action and the tumor had to be removed within in the next couple of days so they pushed Roald to the top of the list which was a huge relief for Roald, family and friends.

From there Roald and his mother had appointment’s after appointment with doctors and surgeons explaining what would happen during and after surgery. The family was told that Roald would be awake during most of his surgery because the surgeons wanted to monitor his speech and memory.
During the awake surgery Roald was experiencing too much pain so he was then put under general anaesthesia for the rest of the surgery.
In total the surgery was six hours once surgery was done the doctors checked his speech and memory and were happy with the result of the surgery went, he stayed in hospital for a couple of days before he was set free to do the rest of the recovering at home.
Roald was doing well at home with the recovery on a very healthy diet and taking supplements etc.

Towards the end of September Roald had another seizure but lucky at the time he had friends around him who called that ambulance and family.

He was taken straight to Tygerberg trauma where after yet another CT scan was done and they determined that the tumor had grown back, after the CT scan they were then sent to the oncology department, where they waited three weeks because the doctors had gone away on school holiday, They we were not happy with the oncologist at Tygerberg and then moved Roald to Groote Schuur where they were better equipped and they wasted no time in getting the CT scan and the radiation preparation ready.
My Roald and his mother were very happy with service.

After Roald most recent seizure he’s been given all sorts of new medications and a huge amount which he must to take three times a day after food, the side effect from the medication have kicked in and is currently not feeling well or like himself at the moment, some days are easier than other which is completely normal but so frustrating for him because he just wants to feel normal again but its going to take a while before that happens with radiation just around the corner.

List side effects

- Head aches
- Blurred vision
- Less of an appetite
- Sleeping more
- Trouble walking
- Slower in Speak/ thought process

So now doctor have told Roald and his mother the best option now is to do radiation and the tumor is a growing and radiation will help decrease the size and also kill the cancer cells for a period of time.