Our names are Christopher and Tracey. We are looking to raise funds for our son, Christian. He is just 7 years old, and he has already been through more battles than most adults face in a lifetime. Now, Christian is fighting cancer for the fourth time, and despite everything, he continues to smile and laugh.
We have created a website telling Christian's entire story. We will be adding regular updates there.
Christian was first diagnosed with Pleuropulmonary Blastoma (PPB) cancer shortly after his third birthday in 2020. Pleuropulmonary Blastoma (PPB) is a rare, aggressive childhood cancer affecting the lungs and pleura of the chest. There are less than 50 children diagnosed each year in the United States. Since then, he has endured countless hospital visits, surgeries, chemotherapy, and scans.
During the first diagnosis, he endured 12 cycles of chemotherapy, 3 different chemo ports, and 2 surgeries. His big surgery during this diagnosis included removing the pleural lining of the wall of his right chest and the upper lobe of his right lung. During his second diagnosis, he endured 12 more rounds of chemo and another big surgery. This surgery included a middle and lower lobe wedge resection and a piece of his diaphragm. During his third diagnosis, he went through more chemotherapy and a much larger surgery. This surgery included the complete removal of his right lung, a larger piece of his diaphragm, they disconnected his phrenic nerve to make his right diaphragm not function anymore, and they had to repair a large artery that the tumor eroded through and placed a silicone implant in his chest to keep his heart and left lung from shifting over. Each time we thought the cancer was gone, it came back. His courage and strength amaze us every single day.
On his last set of scans a few weeks ago, we found out that he has a new tumor, now on his left lung. Christian has already done all the standard courses of treatment for PPB cancer. We are now going to try and treat one of the genetic mutations that they found in the tumor to try and beat this disease once and for all.
Over the last 5 years, we have incurred more debt from hospital trips and stays, medical bills from treatments and procedures that weren't covered by our insurance. We have drained our savings and retirement accounts to help cover all these costs. Christian has been asking to go to Florida to go to the new Universal Studios Epic Universe. One other wish of his is to ride in a Tesla Cybertruck. This will also give us the chance to rent one for a day. We were going to take him and his sister to Epic Universe next year, but we are not sure if the medicine is going to work and if we will have enough time before he doesn't feel good from either the new chemo medicine, he's on or if they can't get the tumor under control.
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