Kingston resident David Tessier is hoping for financial help and support from the community as he battles an extremely rare for of cancer.
“I don’t want to stop fighting. I don’t want to give up,” said Tessier.
Tessier has been battling alveolar soft part sarcoma for nearly half his life.
Alveolar soft part sarcoma makes up only 0.0005% of all cancer diagnoses.
“Right now, it’s in about eight parts of my body. The back of my head, my arm, my liver, my adrenal gland, my thigh, my hip, tons in my lungs and even my left humerus bone now,” Tessier told Global News.
David was diagnosed with the disease just four months into dating his now wife, Rachel. The 17 years since the diagnosis has been a roller coaster of emotions, she says.
In the past two years, treatment has not been working as well as the Tessiers hoped.
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“I’m really scared to lose him. It’s been hard, the last two years especially,” said Rachel Tessier.
Since the treatment isn’t having the right effect, David is now turning to medication that has shown positive effects in the United States and Europe. The problem is, the treatment isn’t covered by Health Canada.
The family has started a GoFundMe campaign, because on top of countless trips to Toronto see a specialist, they now have the added expense of this treatment, which costs $150K per year.
A compassion fund from a private pharmacy is covering half the cost, but that still leaves Tessier to find $75K to cover the rest.
“I’ve communicated with people through social media who have been on these treatments,” said David Tessier. “They’re immunotherapy treatments. It’s showing a lot of benefit to others, but it’s not covered here. This is why we’re trying to fund the treatment ourselves.”
Not too long ago, this diagnosis would have been a death sentence.
Thanks to recent medical developments, David Tessier has been able to live as normal a life as anyone could with this condition.
If enough money is raised for this life-saving new treatment, he hopes he can continue to live his life to the fullest.
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