A 7-year-old Christchurch boy who has been battling cancer since the age of 4 has just relapsed and now needs surgery in Australia before he is put in palliative care. Connor Coster was approved last week for chimeric antigen receptor - or CAR T-cell - therapy, but a family friend says that would mean travelling to Melbourne for the treatment. Lisa Chalmers, a close friend of Connor’s mother Lisa Robertson, has set up a Givealittle page to get him and his mother to Australia for what she believes will be a “life-saving treatment”.
“Connor has one last option to try before they switch him to palliative care,” Chalmers said. “The family is really struggling financially , as only the husband can work since Connor is in and out of hospital constantly.” The page has so far raised $2850 from 64 donors in 22 days.
Chalmers said she started the Givealittle page to help the family cover costs for Melbourne, where she believes they’ll have to stay for several months . Connor was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma with a Philadelphia-positive chromosome at the age of 4 in August 2021. This is Connor’s second relapse and the cancer “has come back very fast”, she said.
In September 2021, Connor’s dad Bobby Coster said they had been out swimming and “things weren’t right”. “Connor was screaming in agony with pain in his right leg. We couldn’t see anything, so took him to the doctor,” Coster said.
“The doctor examined Connor, couldn’t determi.