Help Save Matt

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Club members, and Fellow sailors,

I am writing on behalf of Matt Pyne the friendly marina manager at Middle Harbour Yacht Club who urgently needs our help.

As some of you are probably aware, Matt was diagnosed with an aggressive type of Lung cancer earlier this year. The type, which affects non-smokers like Matt, is rare and hard to treat.

For nearly twelve months Matt has been quietly battling this awful disease whilst continuing to turn up daily for work to help us all out with a friendly smile on his face. Only the other day I asked Matt if he was fit enough to service some lifejackets for us. His answer - “Sure mate, I will fit it around my chemotherapy appointments”.

Matt is not the type to complain or ask for help. He never betrays the torment he has endured, preferring always to make light of his struggle and crack a joke with a twist of black humour and an infectious smile on his face.

But the truth is, this all-round good Aussie bloke is in trouble. After months of chemotherapy, radio therapy and immunotherapy, which initially seemed to be working, the cancer is now spreading and the treatment options are rapidly diminishing.

Now there is a glimmer of light and hope on the distant horizon. A glimmer in the shape of a new targeted treatment specifically aimed at the obscure genome sequence, KRAS G12D, that characterises the rare cancer that Matt has.

This treatment uses a targeted immune therapy response that activates the body’s own ‘T’ cells against the cancer. The treatment is potentially ground-breaking and may change the way this vile disease is treated in the future. Right now, it offers Matt some serious hope and a much-needed lifeline.

To give Matt a chance to grasp this opportunity he will need to be accepted into a drug trial in The Life House Cancer Hospital in Sydney and Matt is working with his oncologist to try to organise a place on this drug trial.

In the last few weeks Matt’s health has taken a battering with a serious infection plus really bad fluid on his lungs and this has meant that he’s had to spend time in hospital and this has meant that Matt is facing substantial additional expenses on top of all the earlier costs he and Suzanne have already had to face.

With the expenses Matt has already incurred and the ongoing costs likely to come, both if he is accepted on the trial and also additional ongoing expenses, Matt is facing a financial situation where he needs our help.

If Matt is unsuccessful in getting into the Sydney trial, there is another trial starting in New York and he will be trying to be accepted into that trial. If that happens, there will be a requirement for a larger fund-raising attempt as it will require Matt and Suzanne to spend quite some time in NY. At this time we are just looking at raising funds to help Matt with the existing and future expenses here in Sydney.

Matt has always gone out of his way to help us when we’ve asked for it and now it’s our chance to say thank you by helping him out in this fight for his life.

Matt is not the type to ask for help which is precisely why we are asking on his behalf and our target is to raise $100,000.

If you are willing to stand up for Matt at this time and give him some Christmas cheer, hope and another chance at life please contribute what you can spare to help Matt out.

All contributions will be placed the Go Fund Me account, which will be used solely for the support of Matt and his immediate family during this tough time.  

All contributions can be made at: https://gofund.me/e466061c

Please do your best for Matt whatever you can do. Every little bit helps.

Andy Fairclough and John McGrory