Time for Tami
Because every second counts!
Our friend Tamara is 30 years young, lives with her partner Robin and their two cats in Mannheim. She suffers from incurable cancer. Tamara has the most aggressive breast cancer known: a triple negative mamma carcinoma (TNBK). This type of cancer is characterized by rapid cell growth, frequent migration and less promising possibilities for finding the right therapy.
Tami’s story
In April 2017 Tami received a simple fax with the diagnosis that changed everything – breast cancer. What followed was a series of mistakes, muddles and muck-ups. You can find out more about Tami’s story here…
April 2017
Diagnosis
Tamara’s life changed suddenly from one second to the next on receiving the simple fax containing her diagnoses for breast cancer. In the year before she got the fax, several doctors had assured her that the knots in her breast were just a cyst and non-malignant. The breast tumor was removed, thought to be benign.
Treatment
But Tamara didn’t give up. She succumbed to chemotherapy an incredible 24 times, went through two complicated operations and a great many other surgeries, as well as 25 courses of radiotherapy. She always remained positive and managed to take strength out of the terrible situation. She did everything she could to fight the cancer herself – she became part of self-help groups, read specialist books, went to medical congresses and made sure she was a pillar and role-model for other patients. One of her doctors wrote in her patient file: “highly engaged and informed patient”.
Setback
However, Tamara’s efforts were not rewarded. Just as she thought that she’d made it, and only a few days before the trip to Asia that was supposed to symbolize her new start, she had a routine check. Completely unexpected, the scan showed inoperable liver metastases. A special local chemo-process called TACE is able to shrink some metastases, causing great pain, but, unfortunately, further metastases are growing in her lungs and bones. Several doctors have said that Tamara would no longer be alive if it wasn’t for TACE. Tamara’s family cover all costs for the process.
New possibilities
Classical chemotherapy has no chance to help in Tamara’s situation. Her final hope is an innovative immune therapy from the USA. The agent of this immunotherapy is called Durvalumab and the treatment takes place at the NCT in Heidelberg. Checkpoint inhibitors help to demask the cancer, so that the patient’s own immune system recognizes it for what it is and is able to fight it. Unfortunately, her health insurance doesn’t yet pay for this. In addition, she gets so-called PARP inhibitors for her BRCA1-genetic mutation. This combined therapy is currently held to be the most effective way to treat spreading TNBK. This is an important opportunity that Tamara simply has to use.
September 2019
In the end, there is simply love
Our dear Tamara left us on 22.9.2019 at 22:22 o’clock. We were with her until the end and held her hand ❤ The most important thing: She had no pain and is now finally relieved. Remember her as you have her in your heart. In her heart she will always be with us ❤ Thank you for everything you have done – to each and every one of you. We fought together to the end and unfortunately lost. What she told us in the evening: “I’m not gone – I’m just one step ahead of you and we’ll see each other again! Feel all pressed!
Tami – power woman and role-model
As Tamara’s friends, we feel the need to repeat what a wonderful person she is and with how much courage, strength and passion she has faced this disease for the last two years and dealt with one setback after the next. She lost her beloved father only four years ago and she has had to spend several weeks in a wheelchair herself because of her rheumatism. She has had to see her dream of starting a family with her partner dashed. But she has born all of this and never lost her smile. She has this amazing ability to see the positive in everything. She’s the strongest person we know. Despite all the bad prognoses, severe pain facing her every day and being constantly unclear about how much time she still has, Tamara enjoys life. Whereas others are paralysed by fear and complain about how life isn’t fair, Tamara just wants to live and is grateful for each day that she continues to live. Grateful, although none of this is her fault and the situation could have been reversed..
What are we collecting for?
The National Tumor Centre in Heidelberg has given a further chemotherapy a 10 % chance of success and would take maximum three months. Her final hope is an innovative but expensive combined therapy from the USA, which is not listet at german health insurances by now. Her application for cost acceptance was rejected. Tamara has already raised an objection. But now she has to pay the incredible sum of 8000 Euros every three weeks. If the therapy shows signs of helping, the health insurance may come round to contributing, but it hasn’t agreed to cover any of the costs.
There is no money left. Her family has already invested tens of thousands of Euros. We want to at least support Tamara’s painful journey financially so that she can focus on her therapy and doesn’t have to deal with a mountain of debt.
How can I help?
Every second is incredibly valuable for Tamara. This is her previous lifetime – you can contribute to making the clock tick further. Your support for our crowd-funding can give Tamara a future! Time really is money. Help Tamara to have a few more years. She’s eared it.
Your donation in favor of people suffering from triple negative breast cancer (TNBK) – and thus also for Tamara – can be deducted from tax
Transparency is important!
Here you can see how much we have already achieved together. This numbers are updated regularly.
Last update: 03.05.2019 16:46
