Kole's Crusade

The Martel family needs our help!

Baby Kole has been in and out of the hospital since he was born, and each visit has led to a potentially different cause or diagnosis, as well as more testing, lots of follow-up appointments, and procedures. Kole was being treated for neutropenia and started seeing a new doctor. This required weekly blood draws to check his blood levels and he had to be kept in a bubble, as he didn’t have an immune system. This led to a couple more hospital stays and during his last hospital admission, he wasn’t recovering after receiving treatment, so they ordered a bone marrow biopsy. Six days later, they received the most heart-wrenching news... I’m so sorry, it’s cancer, it’s extremely rare, and you will be meeting with a team at Dana Farber Cancer Institute on Monday.

Kole is Courtney and Steve’s rainbow baby, they fought hard to have him. Kalina (Kole’s 11-year-old big sister) waited 10 long years to have a sibling, and now this!! To say they are devastated is an understatement.

Kole’s diagnosis is Monosomy -7. It is extremely rare in babies, affecting 4 in 1 million. Rapid progression is common, and Kole has already progressed to advanced MDS. The prognosis is poor without aggressive chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Even with treatment, nearly half of individuals die of MDS/AML or treatment complications. A confirmed donor has been found. The donor isn’t a perfect match, which comes with increased risks of failure, and other complications but we are beyond grateful that one was found so quickly. Time is of the essence as Monosomy 7 has only a 1-3% survival rate if it goes untreated, and Kole has, unfortunately, started to show signs of the disease progressing.

Kole will be admitted on December 18th to start the heartbreaking transplant process... which starts with chemotherapy for two weeks to kill all of his cells so his body is ready for the stem cell transplant.

Steve will be out of work starting on 12/18/23, so he can take care of Kalina and keep things as normal as possible for her, visit Kole daily, and support Courtney, who will be spending all of her time with Kole. All funds donated will help offset the loss of pay; travel expenses; etc. Easing this burden will allow Courtney and Steve to concentrate on Kole and support each other through this incredibly difficult time. No donation is too small and please feel free to share with friends and family. Positive thoughts and prayers are also much appreciated.

If you would like to donate via Venmo you can do so by looking up Kole's Crusade, you will see Kole's picture. We unfortunately aren't able to provide a link.

In addition to this GoFundMe, a benefit is being organized with date and venue TBD. If you would like to donate a drawing item (for example, baskets, tickets to sporting/theatrical events, or gift cards), please contact Gayle Bannister Or Karen Langlais (Kole's Mammy) via FB Messenger. We will post updates as soon as they become available.

I have known Courtney since she was twelve-years-old. Courtney is the sweetest person, so appreciative, hard-working, and loving. This is likely to be the most difficult thing she will ever face, the most difficult thing her family will ever face, but if you donate, they can face it together. Please, please, please help this young family!