Angie and Joseph Purtill are calling on the community for support. Photo: Supplied.
After a long, exhausting battle with colon cancer, Mathoura local Angie Purtill was told she had only two months left to live.
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Her husband, Joseph Purtill, collected her from Bendigo Health, which had been her home for almost three months at the time, and the couple returned to Mathoura to wait out her final days.
Against all odds, Mrs Purtill has continued to live on for more than 12 months since that day.
Now the couple is appealing to the wider community for help to give Mrs Purtill a chance at survival.
Mr Purtill said a promising doctor in Melbourne had given them renewed hope that she could make a full recovery.
“She’s got an appointment with a doctor in Melbourne and this doctor does in-depth testing ... but he’s horribly expensive, he’s 5K-plus per appointment,” he said.
“Whether it does any good, I don’t know, but we’ve got to try something, try everything.
“It just seems like God isn’t done with her and I don’t know, on a whole bunch of levels you can say she’ll be gone soon, right? But I don’t think she will be.”
Mrs Purtill has defied all odds, living 10 months longer than the two months she was told she had left. Photo: Supplied.
After traditional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy proved ineffective, the couple are hoping the Melbourne-based specialist may be the answer to their prayers.
The doctor specialises in integrative treatments, which combine conventional treatments with other effective therapies to treat the physical, psychological and emotional effects of cancer.
Mr Purtill said the treatment had received positive feedback and promising results for others, and could be life-changing for his wife.
However, with Mr Purtill no longer working so that he can care full-time for his wife, the cost of the specialist has been a major barrier to accessing the treatment.
With the help of Mrs Purtill’s former colleagues, a GoFundMe page was created to help raise money, and in less than a week of the fundraiser going live, the couple’s family and friends and the local community raised a massive $10,000.
As of Wednesday, September 24, a total of $13,057 of the $45,000 goal had been raised.
Mr Purtill said regardless of the ups and downs over the past few years, Mrs Purtill has persevered through it all.
“I don’t know how she does it. She’s got something in her, just something that I don’t have, and I don’t see it in hardly anyone else ... she just deserves a freaking medal,” he said.
“Fortunately, we’ve got lots of stories of good Christians in the past, what they’ve endured, and they’ve stayed faithful to God, and so that keeps us going a lot.”
Mrs Purtill has successfully secured an appointment with the Melbourne specialist early next month.
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