Hello! My name is Alexa (Tom and Marie's daughter), and I am starting this fundraiser for my stepdad and mother. This fundraiser will help alleviate some extra bills due to travel and any additional expenses from Tom's cancer treatments this Christmas season.

Let's start from the beginning of Tom's cancer journey:

For those who do not know, my stepdad has been fighting the good fight for a little over a year and a half now. In the spring of 2021, Tom was at work and did not feel well. They initially thought he had a heart attack, but after he was taken to the hospital, we discovered he had had two mini strokes due to his extremely high white blood cell count. After running numerous tests, it was confirmed that the increased blood cell count was unfortunately the one word no one ever wants to hear, cancer.

The type of cancer Tom has is called Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, or CML for short. For those unfamiliar with this type of cancer, it is a slow progressing and uncommon type of blood-cell cancer that begins in the bone marrow. It's caused by a chromosome mutation that occurs spontaneously. Doctors have yet to discover the reason for the mutation, which is part of why we were very shocked by the diagnosis since he didn't really have any symptoms leading up to the mini-strokes.

After his original diagnosis, he was given oral chemo that was to be taken for the rest of his life. Several years ago, these chemo pills were designed to target this specific type of CML. Most patients have tremendous long-term success with this pill. At first, everything was going well, but in rare cases with this type of Leukemia, it can mutate where it does not respond to the oral chemo. In January of 2022, Tom went in for one of his cancer checkups. It was discovered that he was in a very small percentage where the oral chemo was not working, causing a dramatic increase in blood cell production again.

With Tom's mutation, the primary remission treatment is a bone marrow blood transfusion. To get Tom’s body in a place to accept this transfusion, he was to undergo a month of intravenous and oral chemo while at the U of M. So, for the month of February, he was in the hospital receiving treatments and excellent care from the doctors and nurses. After that, they sent him home to rebuild his strength and find a donor match for the good cells. During this time, a donor match was found, but his body did not fully respond to the chemo treatments, and more cancerous fluid was found in his spine, making him not eligible for the transfusion.

From March 2022 to now, this has unfortunately been the continuous battle of getting the fluid down to zero and then his numbers rising again before he can get to transplant. He has come very close to getting his transplant several times, but his cancer is considered a tricky case as he has experienced so many mutations. He is currently undergoing another couple of rounds of chemo to try and eradicate the spinal fluid. We ask for prayers so that Tom’s numbers can go down and stay down this time, so he can finally receive the life-saving transplant he needs!

To know Tom and Marie is to know two of the kindest, loving and most caring people this world has to offer. They are also the people who will never ask for help, even when they are the first to help anyone else that needs it. I am generally not someone who would set something like this up, but I felt it was on my heart to do this for both of them this Christmas season. The money will mainly be used to pay for gas and miscellaneous expenses that come with cancer care. Since he is being treated at the U of M in St. Paul, the money will help towards the gas costs that come from driving back and forth from Carver roughly 4-5 times per week for treatment. They do not know we have started this fundraiser as my sister and I would like to surprise them with this beautiful gift for Christmas. I wish many blessings to everyone this Christmas season and ask for healing prayers for Tom and our family in the coming months!

**Update, after a title rough week at the hospital we decided to share the news with them early. They were so surprised and grateful. We will keep it open until Christmas to keep the blessings coming.**