Our wonderful dad, husband, papa, father in law, brother & friend was diagnosed with kidney cancer and secondary lung cancer (non smoker all his life) in February this year. To complicate things further the treatment that has been offered to him is a drug called SUTENT which is not funded by the NHS. To this end he is currently expected to spend £3400 a month of his retirement money to try and save his own life. Fortunately, our mother’s corporate health insurance has agreed to pay for at least some months.
To give you some idea how good the drug is, Interferon (NHS prescribed drug) gives you a 14% rate of slowing the progress of the cancer whereas SUTENT gives you a 45-50% chance.
In May four great friends and I have organised a charity cycle ride beginning in our home village of Tasburgh and ending at Westminster, London where we will meet our local MP Richard Bacon, James Whale (Radio, TV presenter & Patron of the charity) and all our supporters to raise as much money and more importantly raise awareness of this dreadful disease and the treatments that people rightly deserve.
Can I very humbly ask that you consider sponsoring us for the ride and offer your support in raising the awareness of kidney cancer and its associated treatment? We hope in some way, this will help others to get the necessary treatment they need.
Many thanks on behalf of the Blackett family & the members of the David Blackett Kidney Cancer Care Fund bike team:- James Blackett, Mark King, Ian Smith, Darren Styles, Anthony Wiggins and Dave (The Van) Child.