Woman plans to sell home to pay for pancreatic cancer treatment
KAREN Young has spent nearly all of her $70,000 life savings on medical bills and now is now selling her house after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Manly
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A WOMAN has been forced to sell her paintings, jewellery and now even her house after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Karen Young, 53, has spent nearly all of her $70,000 life savings on medical bills, alternative therapies and living costs while not working. Now she is preparing to sell her North Manly home.
“This breaks my heart as I love my home, however, my health is more important,” said Ms Young, who is single.
She believes if she was suffering from another type of cancer the financial burden might not have been so great.
“My friends ask why couldn’t I have got breast cancer?” said Ms Young, who can no longer afford her private health insurance, has had to ditch her recruitment business and put her large mortgage payments on hold, since being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer last April. She said it was unfair there were fewer treatment options for pancreatic cancer than for more common cancers.
For example, a government website listing available trials for cancer patients showed there were currently 95 for breast cancer versus 12 for pancreatic.
“It seems to be the forgotten illness and no one is well enough or survives long enough to bring this cancer to justice,” said Ms Young. “Our lives are worth saving as much as the next person.”
Caroline Kelly, from Manly, who founded the Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation with her husband who died from the disease, said the issue for pancreatic patients was prognosis was often poor and treatment tough, which often caused “enormous financial strain” and in some cases the loss of their homes.
Ms Young has had five months of brutal chemotherapy and radiotherapy. An upcoming routine scan, which will cost her $700, will reveal whether there are any other options available here or whether she must go overseas where treatments, plus costs, could total $100,000.
Ms Young said friends from Forest High School, have set up a Go Fund Me site on her behalf and were rallying round to help prepare her house for sale. To help go to gofundme.com/karens-healing-journey.
For information on pancreatic cancer go to: avnersfoundation.org.au
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