Michael Saum Fund
Donation protected
I am starting this page to help my best friend, Michael Saum.
At just 20 years old, Michael was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Had symptoms such as headaches, fainting, seizures, weakness, and loss of motor skills, progressively worsened, surgery was attempted at the age of 21, but was unsuccessful as only a small piece of the tumor was resected. Throughout surgery and radiation therapy, he continued to work and attend school despite some deficits.
Michael loved music and was a music major, but was unable to continue pursuing his dream of a career in music after his diagnosis. In 2006, symptoms including memory loss and other cognitive deficits once again began to worsen and an MRI in January 2007 showed significant tumor growth.
For the next 19 months, he followed a strict regimen of chemotherapy. The therapy took a toll on his body though and he began spending more time in the hospital than at home. Too sick to eat, he quickly lost 80 pounds within just the last three months of treatment and he made the choice to stop treatment.
After recovering from the effects of the chemo, Michael went back to school, graduating with a Master's degree in Sociology from Cal State Fullerton in 2012.
After putting on over 100 pounds during grad school, he made the decision to lose weight and get healthy. He did exactly that and the last year and a half has been the best of his life. Declared cancer free in April 2013, Michael has a girlfriend whom he is very much in love with and was even healthy enough to work again.
This past April Michael began an internship at an LGBTQ non-profit organization in LA - his dream job. Shortly after though, he started getting severe headaches and it seems that his general health just started to decline. Just to be sure that this was just a fluke, having nothing to do with a tumor, we went to the emergency room and a CT scan revealed exactly what we feared. The tumor is back - larger than ever before. This past Wednesday, August 13th, he learned that the tumor has taken over the frontal lobes of both hemispheres.
Without chemotherapy, he was given 6 to 9 months to live and even with chemo, only a few more months of life would be gained and just as it did this time, the tumor will undoubtedly come back again, and there is no guarantee the chemo will even work. In fact, it is likely to make me even sicker than the cancer. We investigated Cannabis Oil, but a month's supply could cost upawards of $2,500 and he fears that we will never be able to raise that much money every month or at all. Also, there is no evidence to support the fact the Cannabis Oil is a cure, which in the cancer world means being cancer-free for 5 year with no recurrence. Thus, he has chosen not to do any type of treatment. He wants to just live out the rest of days as happy and comfortably as is possible.
We will also be having yard sales and (hopefully) car washes so if you have anything laying arouse your house, yard, garage,etc... please let us know and we will go pick it up.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Please just give whatever it is you have to give, be it $1 or $100. Anything helps :)
Thank you...
At just 20 years old, Michael was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Had symptoms such as headaches, fainting, seizures, weakness, and loss of motor skills, progressively worsened, surgery was attempted at the age of 21, but was unsuccessful as only a small piece of the tumor was resected. Throughout surgery and radiation therapy, he continued to work and attend school despite some deficits.
Michael loved music and was a music major, but was unable to continue pursuing his dream of a career in music after his diagnosis. In 2006, symptoms including memory loss and other cognitive deficits once again began to worsen and an MRI in January 2007 showed significant tumor growth.
For the next 19 months, he followed a strict regimen of chemotherapy. The therapy took a toll on his body though and he began spending more time in the hospital than at home. Too sick to eat, he quickly lost 80 pounds within just the last three months of treatment and he made the choice to stop treatment.
After recovering from the effects of the chemo, Michael went back to school, graduating with a Master's degree in Sociology from Cal State Fullerton in 2012.
After putting on over 100 pounds during grad school, he made the decision to lose weight and get healthy. He did exactly that and the last year and a half has been the best of his life. Declared cancer free in April 2013, Michael has a girlfriend whom he is very much in love with and was even healthy enough to work again.
This past April Michael began an internship at an LGBTQ non-profit organization in LA - his dream job. Shortly after though, he started getting severe headaches and it seems that his general health just started to decline. Just to be sure that this was just a fluke, having nothing to do with a tumor, we went to the emergency room and a CT scan revealed exactly what we feared. The tumor is back - larger than ever before. This past Wednesday, August 13th, he learned that the tumor has taken over the frontal lobes of both hemispheres.
Without chemotherapy, he was given 6 to 9 months to live and even with chemo, only a few more months of life would be gained and just as it did this time, the tumor will undoubtedly come back again, and there is no guarantee the chemo will even work. In fact, it is likely to make me even sicker than the cancer. We investigated Cannabis Oil, but a month's supply could cost upawards of $2,500 and he fears that we will never be able to raise that much money every month or at all. Also, there is no evidence to support the fact the Cannabis Oil is a cure, which in the cancer world means being cancer-free for 5 year with no recurrence. Thus, he has chosen not to do any type of treatment. He wants to just live out the rest of days as happy and comfortably as is possible.
We will also be having yard sales and (hopefully) car washes so if you have anything laying arouse your house, yard, garage,etc... please let us know and we will go pick it up.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Please just give whatever it is you have to give, be it $1 or $100. Anything helps :)
Thank you...
Organizer
Julia Solis
Organizer
El Monte, CA
