Support Chase's Fight Against Cancer

I'm starting this GoFundMe to support my cousin, Chase Johnson and his family with medical bills that are piling up. You can find the details of the situation below. If you're the spiritual type, we ask for your prayers and if you feel inclined to donate it would be greatly appreciated! No amount is too small, as it all adds up.

Chase's Cancer Diagnosis & First Surgery

Chase is only 24 years old and on August 23rd, 2023 he was diagnosed with stage 3 Leiomyosarcoma in his small intestine. Unfortunately, this is a very rare and extremely aggressive cancer that can spread quickly. That being said, he had surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital on September 15th, 2023 to remove the tumor. His oncologist seemed pretty confident at the time that they were able to remove all of it, however he found out on October 12th that it had already come back.

Initial Chemo Regimen

Due to the aggressiveness of the cancer, Chase started an intense chemotherapy treatment the night of October 12th. He was continuously pumped with chemo drugs 24 hours a day for 7 days straight and then off for 3 weeks. Since the treatments were 24/7, he had week long hospital stays. The initial plan was to do this for 5 months/cycles, however after his 3rd cycle he had developed another small tumor.

Revised Chemo Regimen

At that point, they decided to switch the treatment plan up. From January to June of this year, his chemo regimen consisted of a 30 minute infusion 1 week and the next week was a 2 hour infusion. After that, he'd be off for a week and start the cycle again. In July he was told he was in remission. He was feeling pretty good and started working again until October.

Stage 4 Diagnosis & Experimental Chemo Treatment

In the middle of October he was still feeling ok, but when he went back for his regularly scheduled 3 month scan, he was told that it was back. Not only was it back, they said he had a 6"x3"x3" tumor in his stomach, along with several other small tumors in the same area. Since it had spread to another organ, it's now classified as Stage 4. Due to the size of the tumor, the doctors didn't feel comfortable operating, as they worried that it could spread to the blood stream. Also, since the other chemo regimens didn't seem to work, they immediately started Chase on an experimental chemo pill, in hopes that it would start to kill the tumor. It wasn't long before the size of the tumor started causing major pain in his abdomen and he was in and out of the hospital 4 times over the next month (1-2 day stays each time). The week before Thanksgiving they did another scan to see if the pill had shrunk the tumor at all. The scan showed that it was starting to kill the inside of the tumor a bit, however it was still growing faster than it was killing it.

Latest Surgery

Since Chase was in so much pain and hadn't eaten in weeks, there was really was no choice other than surgery. The day before Thanksgiving a team of 8 surgeons removed the tumors, which were attached to his stomach, colon and small intestine. The large tumor ended up being way bigger than they thought (picture attached if you have a strong stomach) and they are pretty sure that they removed all of the cancer. We continue to pray that this is the case! Chase is feeling better each day, but he's still in the hospital and on a liquid diet. They're hoping that he can be discharged sometime this weekend.

Moving Forward

They haven't developed his treatment plan moving forward yet, as his body needs time to heal. I'll update this page once we receive more information.

Thank you ahead of time for any and all support!