Sign Amy’s Petition Below

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NEVILLE –

Doctors can’t tell me exactly how long my husband has to live. Our oncologist said it could be as little as two weeks however our neurosurgeon said, given he is fit and strong, it could be 3 to 6 months.

Nick has exhausted all the commercially available treatment options for Stage 4 melanoma and is just not qualifying for the new ‘breakthrough’ PD-1 drug trials – he needs access to PD-1 urgently, however the pharmaceutical companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck, each of whom make a version of PD-1 have not, to date, agreed to grant Nick access to the drug on a compassionate basis. They insist that he should enter a trial but they know that he does not qualify for any trials.

I can’t imagine life without Nick. I can’t imagine telling our son Locky he has to watch the big game alone, telling Hayley that Daddy can’t take her bike-riding anymore, or knowing that my youngest son won’t even remember his dad.

This treatment is our family’s last hope. That’s why we started a petition on change.org asking Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck to give Nick compassionate access to the PD-1 cancer drug. Please click here to sign our petition.

Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb have the power to grant Nick single patient access to PD-1 right away under compassionate use laws. They even have policies for providing development drugs to people where it is their only hope. PD-1 is being trialled right now and they’ve given patients compassionate access to drugs like this before so I can’t see any reason why they shouldn’t this time — but so far they’re refusing to hear our case.

Nick is determined to beat this so our children — Locky (7), Hayley (5), and Evan (1) — can grow up with Dad beside them. Nick takes on each new battle with melanoma with audacity — determined to win and constantly assuring others that he will jump the next hurdle. And he always does.

Nick can jump this last hurdle, I know it — but only if Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb give him that chance.

Please join Locky, Hayley, Evan, and me in asking Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb to provide the cancer drug PD-1 to Nick, so he can win against melanoma.

Thank you so much for your help,

Amy Auden

 

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