Givealittle fund started for former Rotorua Hospital chaplain's chemotherapy

Retired Rotorua Hospital chaplain Ray Bloomfield has been diagnosed with cancer. Photo / Stephen Parker

Retired Rotorua Hospital chaplain Ray Bloomfield has shed many tears since being diagnosed with cancer.

Although his faith is strong and he is ready to go if that is what is to be, he is not ready to leave his beloved family.

Pat Bloomfield, Ray's wife of nearly 50 years, said the diagnosis early this year came as an absolute shock.

"I was gutted, just gutted," Bloomfield said.

"Ray only retired in November last year and we had made plans. Now everything is on hold and there is only uncertainty about the future."

She said her husband's first signs something wasn't right was "golf ball"-sized lumps growing on his back, head and knee. Then his throat started to close up.

"He'd earlier been to the doctor and been given antibiotics but when his throat problems began he went back. He was sent for an urgent scan and we were told he had cancer."

Bloomfield was diagnosed with Mantel Cell Lymphoma, an aggressive incurable cancer.

"We were supposed to be going to the South Island to stay with friends the week Ray was diagnosed. That trip was cancelled."

Also cancelled was a voluntary role with Hospice Rotorua Ray Bloomfield was to start this month.

"Ray was going to start and develop a hospice chaplaincy role that would eventually be taken over by someone else. It seems ironic that instead he will more than likely be a client of hospice."

Bloomfield is undergoing six cycles of chemotherapy and will be having an autologous bone marrow transplant which doctors expect will get him into remission.

However, the cancer will come back.

The first six sessions of chemo are funded by the public health service but any more will cost $30,000.

"We've been told Ray has only the initial six sessions then life expectancy will be until around Christmas. But if he has more he could live another two or three years.

"We really do want that time with him. Our youngest grandchild was born not long ago and all our grandchildren are so young. Ray isn't ready to leave them or his kids, or any of his family, just yet."

The Bloomfields managed to come up with $18,500 toward the second round of chemotherapy. One of Bloomfield's colleagues, David Collins, started a Givealittle page to raise the remaining $11,500.

"Ray is a man who has spent his lifetime serving and caring for others, as a pastor and as a chaplain," Collins said.

"It would be a great feeling to help the family achieve the amount they need."

As of yesterday and after less than a week $12,500 had already been donated.

Collins said the Bloomfields had been overwhelmed at the amazing outpouring of love, demonstrated by so many through the Givealittle page.

"On Monday night we passed our goal of raising $11,500. Together we did this in just five days and I wish to express my deepest gratitude to you," Collins said.

He planned to leave the page active "for a little longer" knowing there were more people who wished to donate.

"I know the first $18,500 of the needed $30,000 was found by Ray and Pat and came at considerable cost to themselves."

Mantle Cell Lymphoma
-Mantle Cell Lymphoma is typically an aggressive, rare, form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) that arises from cells originating in the "mantle zone".
-Frequently, Mantle Cell Lymphoma is diagnosed at a later stage of disease and, in most cases, involves the gastrointestinal tract and bone marrow.
-Over-production of a protein called cyclin D1 in the lymphoma cells is found in more than 90 per cent of patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
- Between 25 and 50 per cent of patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma also have higher-than-normal levels of certain proteins that circulate in the blood.
- Source: Lymphoma Research Foundation