UPDATE: Kailem Barwick was airlifted to Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital on Monday night as his pain worsened.
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Visit www.facebook.com/Kailems-battle-1560987857479590/ for more about Kailem’s fight. Donations can be made directly to the family through Macquarie Credit Union:
Account name: Tony Barwick
BSB: 802 126
Account number: 5452 (add a zero to the front if transferring from another banking institution)
MONDAY: The family of Dubbo teenager Kailem Barwick has issued a passionate plea for donations to help fight their son’s rare bone cancer.
Kailem, 19, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma almost two years ago.
Since then he has undergone more than 20 rounds of chemotherapy, 30 bouts of radiation and a six-hour operation to remove three ribs, part of one lung and three transverse bones on his spine.
But the cancer has now spread throughout his skeletal system, and Kailem has spent the past two weeks at Dubbo Hospital in pain so intense he can’t walk.
The only treatment now available to Kailem is Keytruda – a trial treatment not covered by the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS).
“This treatment is the last resort for Kailem,” Tony Barwick wrote in a letter appealing for donations.
“We need this to work.”
This treatment is the last resort for Kailem, we need this to work.
- Tony Barwick
Keytruda acts by stripping away a cancer cell’s defence, Kailem’s grandparents Helen and Bruce Rushton said. That enables the body’s white blood cells to attack the cancer.
But it comes with a hefty price tag of $5000 per treatment, and Kailem needs nine.
The family is now urging the Dubbo community to help them raise the $45,000 required for Kailem’s last stand.
“He’s run out of options [in Australia],” Mrs Rushton said.
“It’s really hard for me to find this money,” Tony said.
“I am caring for Kailem full-time and not able to go to work.”
Donations have already started rolling in, with Mr Rushton’s former colleagues at Essential Energy’s Hawthorne Street depot raising $1100 through a barbecue last week.
“We are hoping and praying that as a community we are able to raise the funds to cover the costs of the treatments,” Tony said.
Visit www.facebook.com/Kailems-battle-1560987857479590/ for more information. Donations can be made directly to the family through Macquarie Credit Union:
Account name: Tony Barwick
BSB: 802 126
Account number: 05452
