Guitarist Matt Long, from popular UK Blues band Catfish, has been diagnosed with an aggresive cancer. He has been undergoing treatment but this statement was issued yesterday
“Matt has been battling bowel cancer for just under a year and despite surgery and chemo, his latest scan shows that the cancer has spread into his liver and stomach lining. His cancer team have said although there is the option of trying a different type of chemo, they don’t hold out much hope that it will cure him and is likely to at best extend his life a little.
Essentially, we have almost exhausted the options available on the NHS. But we aren’t ready to give up on him.
There is an option to have a sample of the tumour sequenced which will give us the maximum amount of information on its make up, which will then show the cancer team exactly what drugs to use to damage it - to either slow it down, or there is just a small chance that they may be able to kill it.
Obviously, we want to give him access to absolutely everything that might give him a chance. The only access to this treatment is via the private route which is going to be expensive - just the sequencing, which involves sending a sample of the tumour to the USA to a specialist lab, is a little under £3k and any drugs will apparently be about £3k a month after that. We will fund what we can as a family, but obviously any ‘fighting fund’ you can give us would be very much appreciated.
Without any treatment, his cancer team have told us he won’t make it past the end of this year. With the access to sequencing, if it turns out to be something specific they have drugs for, he may have a 15% chance of survival. That has to be worth a shot.”
A Gofundme has been set up and should you wish to donate to what will be crippling bills, you can donate
herePicture by Silfan van der Kaap
