Derek Downs - Terminal Cancer at 25

If you know Derek you know what a great, funny, gentle guy he is. He's very smart. Derek recently received his degree in political science & communications, with a minor in history from Lesley University. He's 6'2" and is a definite foodie!  When he lived at home, most mornings he would ask his mom, "What's for dinner?" I've never met anyone who has a bad word to say about him; he's just fun to be around!

Derek had a seizure and collapsed November 5th. Luckily he was with his roommates and they called 911.
Sadly, through the week, the news just got worse and worse. His seizure was caused by a large tumor interfering with his organs. Then we were told that his cancer is at stage four and is terminal.  

We're staying with him 24/7. We are all devastated.

This all happened in Boston where he recently completed his college education. His family home is in Connecticut. We were initially told that his insurance cannot be transferred. This meant he was stuck in Boston at least weeks and, we thought, possibly till the new year when he could change over to Connecticut insurance.

Thankfully, his mother was able to add him to her insurance.  After two weeks of living in Boston and commuting to and from Connecticut, we were all able to come back to Connecticut and he was moved to the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us and Derek through this terrible time, your donations and especially your words of kindness have held us together. This campaign allowed us to be in Boston with Derek and now is helping us make him comfortable at home.

We have fantastic doctors helping Derek at Yale but their best diagnosis is still that this cancer is going to be fatal. We’re not willing to accept that and are looking at anything that might possibly give him a chance. There are new and upcoming therapies which are promising but because of risk/reward decisions that insurance companies make, they are not covered by the health insurance. Even with financial assistance these are very expensive.

Thank you to everyone that has donated, you are keeping him comfortable, and it has helped him immensely knowing how much you care for him. Your donations are now giving us all a little hope that we could pay for a treatment that might help him. So we are asking you to try and keep this going. Please share this with anyone you think may help.

If you know Derek and can't manage to help financially it’s just as important that he knows you are thinking of him. If you have trouble getting a message to him let us know in the comments and we'll be very happy to help. Love to you all.xo