Rotorua mother with cancer determined to be here for daughter's 21st birthday

Rotorua mother Donna Burns is battling cancer for the third time. Photo / Ben Fraser

A family caravan containing holiday memories and retirement savings will likely have to be sold by one young Rotorua family to help pay the $30,000 needed to fund their mother's life-saving cancer treatment. For the past decade, Donna Burns has been on a rollercoaster of diagnosis and remission. Now, she's faced with having to pay for her treatment to extend her life. On Sunday, National Party leader Simon Bridges pledged a $200 million fund over four years dedicated to cancer drugs if they won the 2020 election. Could this help Kiwis like Burns and sway the decision of voters? Cira Olivier reports.

It was 10 years ago when Rotorua woman Donna Burns went to the doctors about a lump on the left side of her body and was told she had stage three Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Although a slow-growing cancer, it had already progressed to her neck, under her arms, front and back of her stomach, her heart and her groin.

Devastation and disbelief riddled the usually positive mother-of-two.

"Apart from the lumps, I was perfectly healthy," she said.

"I was 34-years-old and the first thing that goes into your head is, 'oh my God, am I going to be here for my children?'"

She was put on rituximab, which was new at the time, used before her chemotherapy to highlight the cancerous cells in the body and aid the chemo in more direct treatment.

The eight doses were fully funded and a scan later found she had gone into remission.

For five years, Burns was living her life with her routine six-monthly checkups, working at Kaitao Intermediate as a financial executive.

She had been cured. Or so she thought.

In 2016, she left work early and headed to the doctors for a routine check-up.

But she knew something was off when she was greeted by the doctor with "are you feeling okay?"

She was sent for immediate blood tests which confirmed the doctor's concern that she had kidney failure with more than 17 times the normal range of creatinine in her blood.

Taken straight to Waikato Hospital, where she spent two months on dialysis, a scan found her cancer had returned in her stomach, blocking her ureter, which caused her kidneys to shut down.

Dealing with the news her kidneys would never work again, Burns was also having to go through chemotherapy again.

But she refused to focus on the negative and achieved her goal of self-dialysis in time for Christmas with her family.

In February 2017, Burns was back at work and undergoing dialysis every three hours when she was told the only cure for her cancer would be a stem-cell transplant using her own cells.

Her body's bone marrow was stripped away with chemotherapy and radiation, leaving her in isolation for a month.

She was given new bone marrow, giving her a new immune system and the return of her kidney function, though partially, which perplexed professionals. She was taken off dialysis completely.

"That was hard work. I'm a tough cookie and that was hard yakka," she said.

"It took me six months to recover from that but it went very well and we thought I was cured. We had a scan and there was nothing left at all," she said.

Rotorua mother of two Donna Burns is battling cancer for the third time. Photo / Ben Fraser

"I thought, 'it's worked. I'm cured. I'm done'."

But during the April school holidays of this year, Burns was thrown back into a wheel of dread when declining kidney function pointed to the cancer returning in her stomach.

"Back to Waikato ... and a scan and a biopsy and the bloody cancer is back," she said.

She started on bendamustine, which was approved for funding by Pharmac two years ago.

A donor stem-cell transplant was discussed but rejected after determining there was a 60 per cent chance she would not make it.

"To hear, 'no we can't do it' ... your mortality pops up in your head," she said.

"There's not going to be more to do, and then what happens?"

She is currently on her fourth dose of six for this chemotherapy treatment and after that, if it works, will be put onto a maintenance treatment of rituximab.

Over two years, every three months, the drug would be used to keep her in remission, as opposed to curing her.

But it will cost $30,000 and this is where the funding runs out for Burns.

The thought of now having to pay to extend her life is daunting and she said the initial payments may come from selling the family caravan they bought after her first diagnosis 10 years ago to create memories and family holidays.

They would also need to dip into their KiwiSaver retirement savings.

"We don't have any other options," she said.

But National Party leader Simon Bridges pledged a $200 million fund over four years dedicated to cancer drugs if National win the 2020 election, and this has given Burns a glimmer of hope.

The party also promised an expert-led Cancer Agency, independent from the Ministry of Health and district health boards.

"If I found out my drug was funded, that would swing my vote," she said.

"You vote for what is best for your family and for me that is being here."

"It's whatever is a hot topic at the time, it's just politics ... who knows if they actually care about the people," she said.

Burns' new goal is it to make it to her daughter's 21st birthday.

Her funded treatments pushed Burns to her physical, mental and emotional limits, but she said it was worth it with every extra day she could be with her family.

So if she has to come up with the $30,000 to continue her treatments, she will do everything she can to make that happen.

In a desperate final plea to save her life, Burns has set up a Givealittle page.

Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
- starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body's immune system.
- affects the body's lymph system, part of the immune system