When journeys join...

Even though this blog is all about Saskia and her journey, we would like to mention one of our good friends Graham Skinner and his journey with cancer.

We met Graham and his family around 6 years ago when they just moved over from England. They moved "Down Under" for only one reason and that was to get a better life, like everybody else that makes the big trip.
This better life got a drastic change in late 2007 when he was diagnosed with Melanoma. It was one of those awkward moles on his leg that grew weird. Doctors thought they got most  of it out, but some tiny particles had spread throughout his left leg. Again after an operation and removal of his lymph nodes in his leg, doctors thought they had it all out. This operation caused him to change his lifestyle drastically as any injury/bruise on that leg could potentially loose him his leg. He gave up his beloved mountain biking and in order to remain fit, he took up Kayaking. Everything seemed manageable untill that moment in July 2010 when the doctors said that the cancer has spread throughout his whole body. It was everywhere: his skin, his bones, his lungs, basically every part of his body was affected, except his brain. The cancer was in such developed stage, that there was not much hope. No chemo therapy or radiation would be able to fight this. Melanie and I visited him in hospital somewhere in September 2010 and we thought that that was the last we would have seen off him. He was in soo much pain that if he had to give a number between 0 and 10, he would have rated it 15.
There was however a glimmer of hope. Some drug was being tested around the world and it seemed that Graham's situation and cancer mutation was a perfect match for a test. This drug goes by the name or registration GSK211 BRAF Inhibitor (??) and it indeed did miracles. Within 24 hrs of taking the drug, his pain levels dropped to below 10 and within 48 hrs the visual signs of the cancer reduced significantly. After now being on that drug for one and half year, he is back at work and feels great.
The drug however does not cure the cancer, it only reduces it in size and contains it. Containment lines can be breached... It did so with Graham and there is now a spot right in the centre of his brain. The drug still manages to keep the rest of the spots under control, but it fails to do so for the one in his brain.
He has been told that once the cancer is in the brain, there is little that can be done and survival rates beyond 4 months are rare. He was told that radiotherapy is the only option of prolonging his life a little and he took the option. We have seen first hand what chemotherapy is doing to your body and I would not wish that upon anybody, but having radiotherapy on your brain is probably worse. In order to get to the cancer spot, they literally have to fry his brain.
In America there is a new drug by the name of YERVOY or IPI, which is based on unleashing the body's own immune system on the cancer. In layman's terms it boosts the immune system so much, that it can actually fight the cancer. This drug is not available in Australia and a complete course of it costs around $120,000. Even as a private patient, this amount is not covered. The big downside is that this drug also does not give any guarantees and it can even cause the body to collapse on itself as the immune system cannot distinguish any longer between good or bad cells.

Humanly speaking there is nothing that can be done for Graham. His journey is getting tougher and tougher. In one of our earliest blogs, I wrote that cancer is a fair disease as it does not discriminate. In Graham's situation we so much wish that it would discriminate. I do not think that there is a better bloke than Graham, no better dad and most likely no better husband. Any one who has come to know Graham feels instantly better. He is always positive, optimistic and cheerful. Even now.

Please do keep him and his young family in your prayers.