Tyson's Cancer Fund

In mid-July Tyson and his family came back to SLC from Idaho as they were getting ready to start his second year of medical school at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Tyson started itching badly all over his body. He went to the doctor and they decided to run a few tests just to rule out the “scary” possible diagnoses. One of those tests was a chest x-ray. On September 1, he received a call and was informed that there was a large mass visible on the x-ray that would require additional testing. After multiple tests and biopsies they got a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He had a chemo port placed and began chemo on October 3. The chemo regimen he is on is known as ABVD. He goes in for treatments every 2 weeks for a total of 6 months. The prognosis is good, but chemotherapy has been really rough on him. The good news is the school has been great to work with during all of this and has allowed Tyson to take a leave of absence and return next year, right where he left off. The bad news is that this has put them in a tight spot financially. Like most medical students, their only source of income for their family was student loans. Since he had to take a leave of absence, he will not be eligible for student loans until fall 2017. Tyson's immune system is extremely suppressed on top of all the other symptoms that come along with chemotherapy, which makes him unable to work at this time.

I want to help them get through this tough time, and I know a lot of others do as well, so that Tyson and his family can focus on getting better.