This week Meila, 12, and her mum, Kristin Davis, flew to the United States where the first stage of Meila’s clinical trial got under way.
Meila was diagnosed with terminal osteosarcoma last June, but has since struggled to secure treatment in New Zealand.
Despite being recommended an experimental drug, EnGeneIC Dream Vector, due to her age and because the drug is in an experimental phase, she had been denied access to it here by Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora, and in Australia, at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
But in May, Mountain Scene reported the netball-loving youngster had been accepted into the University of North Carolina’s clinical trial, the first of its kind for children, which uses a unique form of T-cell therapy.
She and her mum flew to the US on Sunday where they met the trial’s lead doctor, George Hucks, who withdrew some of Meila’s blood, which will be used to create the T-cells.
They will head back to North Carolina in September for six weeks, when the T-cells will be put back in to Meila’s body, targeting her cancerous cells.
In between times, Ms Davis is planning a black-tie ball fundraiser and silent auction, being held at Vingard (formerly Mt Soho) on August 3.
