KEY POINTS:
Katie Sellars never thought she would be travelling the country meeting strangers from the internet, but breast cancer has changed all that.
"I never went into chatrooms before I was diagnosed," said the mother-of-two. "It was something you warned the kids about."
Katie has become a regular on
Trade Me's messageboards, spending several hours a day conversing with others touched by the disease.
The Nelson resident credits her online "friends" with helping raise $8000 towards Herceptin treatment, the high-profile cancer drug the Government won't fully fund.
Since September, the 49-year-old has sold 800 screenprinted tea towels designed by self-employed architect husband Richard and 400 greeting cards on the site.
"They've all been advertising for me and telling their friends," Katie said. "Some have forwarded on links to the auctions to everyone in their address books. It's been just amazing."
For Katie, this is the heart-warming side of what has been a horrific, hugely expensive journey.
Diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer in July 2006, she has been through two operations and six rounds of chemotherapy, which made her so sick that she had to be hospitalised every time.
Herceptin is her best chance of remaining well but a single treatment costs more than $4100.
Katie needs treatment every three weeks for a year, leaving her facing an $80,000 bill - and the prospect of remortgaging the family home.
News in October that Pharmac had again refused funding for the drug in early stage breast cancer was "like a kick in the teeth," Katie said.
"And then when they decided to fund nine weeks, the timing of my chemotherapy made me ineligible.
"So I don't even get the three free treatments."
Katie found support online via Trade Me's messageboards, particularly a thread called "cancer sux". "It was begun by a lovely lady called Sonia Tyler-Davies," said Katie. "She died a year ago today."
Once the sale was mentioned on Trade Me, other members donated the proceeds of their auctions to the fundraising drive.
That's left Katie with dozens of cyber-buddies, many of whom have become real-life friends too.
She met two fellow cancer sufferers in Wellington in April, travelled to Christchurch to support a 26-year-old waiting to have both breasts removed, and will meet members all over the North Island next month.
One of her online friends is a sheep farmer in Gore.
"I have met people I would never normally have met in my day to day life. It's quite mindblowing.
"It's very much a 21st-century support group."
Any money left over will be used to start a trust for other women needing to pay for Herceptin treatment.
