Newark teenager suffering from a rare form of cancer who is having treatment funded by the NHS matched with stem … – LincsOnline

A teenager given a terminal diagnosis just before Christmas has now been told 95% of the cancer gone after experimental treatment.

Dan Evans, 18, is now looking to Israel for his next stage of treatment.

A major community fundraiser was launched to pay for the treatment after the teenager was told he had exhausted all avenues available on the NHS and to go home and make memories.

But money was not needed when the NHS agreed to fund the combination of drugs which had proved successful in trials for Dan.

And he is showing a positive response to treatment, having been told 95% of his cancer is gone.

Defying doctors and his diagnosis, a small part of the cancer is still visible on Dans neck but it has low activity.

Its still early days, but Dan certainly is on the right path now and its certainly a different path to the one he was on just a few months ago, said his dad, Mark.

As one of the final stages and vital to his recovery and to stay in remission once he gets to that stage, Dan is in need of a stem cell transplant. That process is due to start on May 27.

The NHS went on a world wide search for a matching donor. In such a short time, four stem cell donors have been found in Israel, however, the family needs to await confirmation on availability.

Dan had previously done the Ancestry test to discover more about his family history and roots, which showed him to be 1% connected to Israel.

Mark added: I am still concerned but I just feel that it is going to be OK, he is going to be fine.

After everything he has gone through, it just has to be fine, there is no other option really, it has to be fine,

Because there is still a little bit of cancer there, we are always going to be a little nervous, it is only natural.

The day he is finally in remission will be wonderful, absolutely wonderful and I cant wait.

Dan, a former pupil at Sir William Robertson Academy in Welbourn, was diagnosed with stage four Primary Mediastinal B Cell Lymphoma (PMBCL) in December 2022.

After several failed treatments, the family was told there were no more viable treatments available on the NHS and was told to take him home and make memories.

Instead, through research, Dan, who lives in Newark with his family, found a combination of drugs that had proved successful in trial, but not approved on the NHS.

His family set up a GoFundMe page with a 100,000 target and raised nearly half of their target amount in a short time before Dan was given the treatment for free on the NHS through compassionate use.

Dan had the first dose of treatment on January 26 and ever since, what once was a terminal diagnosis, has been improving and defying the rules of life and medicine.

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Newark teenager suffering from a rare form of cancer who is having treatment funded by the NHS matched with stem ... - LincsOnline

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