My uncle was just diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and severe/widespread bone metastases.
It has spread everywhere in his body except his neck, toes and head.
For some reason, he didn't show or complain about the symptoms one would have expected, which is why they didn't detect it until now. But the reality is he is in a country that is so upside down and backwards that in this day and age, we still suffer from such draconian access to medical services.
They are giving him 30 to 60 days to live but it's possible that Tarceva will push that out to 6 to 9 months.
He is very late stage, unbearable and difficult to control pain, unable to eat, very difficult to breath, very weak and very little body weight left. He is 59.
I have been turning my life inside out trying to find a way to gain access to Tarceva. It is impossibly expensive at $3,300 per month. Genentech, the US distributor, has a foundation to assist the needy in the United States.
Roche, the distributor for the rest of the world, does not have this type of charity foundation.
I am desperate and so is my family and I don't know where else to turn but to those of you that have gone through this and understand what's happening.
The United Nations states that access to critical, life sustaining medications is an inalienable human right for every person on this planet. What do I do?
Is there any way to get access to even a small quantity of Tarceva?
I mean, even if I sold every worldly posession I had, it would buy him only two months worth of Tarceva.
I can't accept that our world is like this. It just doesn't make any sense.
Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks in advance.
Pej