By Natalie Akoorie
Chace Topperwien, just two years and three months old, is staging a courageous battle against acute myeloid luekaemia. His parents Keri and Ryan Topperwien talk about his chemotherapy and the possibility that is his only hope of survival is to get on a drug trial overseas.
Relevant offersRyan and Keri Topperwien need at least $90,000 – and a miracle. Without money and a place on a drug trial their little boy’s chances of survival are slim.
Two-year-old Chace Topperwien has a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia and doctors say if the latest round of chemotherapy doesn’t work, he will need palliative care.
But his Hamilton parents aren’t prepared to give up the fight.
Instead they are fundraising for an emergency dash overseas and frantically searching the medical world to get Chace on a drug trial targeting his type of cancer – and they’ve got just three weeks to find one.
“It’s just absolutely desperate,” Mrs Topperwien said. “We just can’t afford to muck around,” Mr Topperwien said.
Chace was diagnosed with the M7 strand of acute myeloid leukaemia in March and has suffered through several rounds of chemotherapy at Auckland’s Starship hospital.
The toddler was mistakenly injected with the Gardasil vaccine, given to teenage girls to prevent cervical cancer, when he was just six weeks old, but doctors cannot say whether the vaccine caused the deadly disease.
Read entire article here, with video.
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