Paul's daughter has started a gofundme page to help raise funds for his Keytruda treatments every 3 weeks at a cost of $5,000 per treatment that Paul has to fund himself. As many of you are already aware, our dad, Paul Bosworth, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the asbestos lung cancer, in August 2014. Dad is only 66 years young. Dad retired after 36 years at Griffith University and was ready to start his retired life with our step-mum Stana, when he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. This was a huge shock to us all as Dad has always been so healthy! Dad never worked with asbestos, but somehow came into contact with it in the worst way possible. But, as we know, cancer doesn’t discriminate and it only takes 1 fibre of asbestos inhaled 30-something years prior to cause this type of cancer. Dad has completed two gruelling chemo treatments over 10 months, radiation and an immunology vaccine trial and his tumour has stayed almost the same size however, over the past several months dad has had to endure very strong pain medication to manage the excruciating pain caused by his cancer. The pain dad suffered pretty much halted his life: he lost a lot of weight and lost his energy, wasn’t sleeping or eating and wasn’t enjoying life anymore. So now that Dad has gone through chemo, radiation and the immunology vaccine trial; and exhausting all these options, we are now looking at “what next?”. On Friday 22nd April, Dad started on a drug called Keytruda. This immunotherapy drug may be the lifeline patients around the world have been seeking. In a clinical trial, Keytruda was found to be effective in controlling mesothelioma tumours in three-quarters of patients. The 25 patients enrolled in the trial, all who had previously received standard chemotherapy treatment but still had tumour growth, received the drug every two weeks. Seven patients had partial response (a decrease in tumours size) and 12 patients had stable disease (no tumour growth or shrinkage). The final results showed an overall disease control rate of 76%! As Keytruda is not on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) for mesothelioma, and in order for Dad to start this treatment, he has to come up with almost $5000 every 3 weeks (approx. $86,000 a year!). These are the out of pocket expenses and this is not financially sustainable for a retiree. In the short time that Dad has been on this drug, he has noticed a remarkable improvement in his quality of life. The pain that he has suffered has almost gone, he’s reduced his pain medication and his fighting spirit is back! Please help us fund Dad’s treatment so we can keep our old man off the streets – we love him and we want him around to be a part of all the little joys that life brings as we get older (ie. weddings, grand-kids, fur-grand-kids, retirement etc). Keytruda can and will help keep Dad around! We love you and we thank you for any donation that you can provide to help save our dad - we are eternally grateful. Love, Tania Other Information: Keytruda is on the PBS for melanoma patients and we are hoping (with the hard work of advocates like Lou Williams) that it will be successful in being put on the PBS for mesothelioma! When it’s on the PBS, it costs patients around $60/dose. A far cry from the $4700/dose dad has to cough up! For more information on living with mesothelioma, check out Lou’s blog – this gives you a great insight into what it’s like having meso and the constant fight to stay alive. Lou is an amazing inspiration! Lou William's Fight Against Mesothelioma To sign the petition to help us get Keytruda on the PBS for Meso patients, please visit Change.org : Petition to have Keytruda on the PBS