Help family of Joseph and Alex

This GoFundMe is for Alex. Joe Bar is my best friend and her father. He is my anchor. My center. He is my brother from a different mother. Please read the story below. He is hurting and seriously concerned for his daughter as am I. In times of turmoil and pain I believe there is love and good in this world. Help is needed immediately to offset expenses. If nothing else please pray and provide your best wishes. I love you all and thanks for all that you can provide.

My name is Joseph Bar. This is my daughter Alex, who is 17 years old. She is a hardworking young woman who has big dreams of graduating and moving on to Albany University for prelaw then law school. She is outgoing, she loves gymnastics, soccer, making others laugh, and is very family oriented. She is talented in music making honors choir, receives excellent grades and will have a whole semester of college done before even starting college. She is driven, tenacious, goofy, wise beyond her years and always wants to make others feel better about themselves and ease their burdens when she is going through her own hardships. She has always been one of the strongest young women I know, and I have always been in awe of her. She has recently found out that she has an extremely dangerous life-threatening condition.

She has what is called an AVM (Arterial Venous Malformation). This is essentially a tumor of blood vessels that are intertwined that have been growing since she was born and can rupture at any time, causing a stroke, brain bleed, seizures, and even death. Currently the AVM is large and pushing her brain over to the left side causing her symptoms, such as tremors, neck stiffness, numbness, tingling, and fatigue. This is a rare disorder only 1% of the population has this. When first discovered about two weeks ago, the best option to fix this was surgery. However, after meeting with the Neurosurgery, Vascular, and Oncology team at Boston Children’s Hospital, it has been determined that the AVM is too large and too close to the MCA (Middle Cerebral Artery), which is the main artery in the brain. They have concluded that the best course of action is to perform a course of radiation, with the hope that they can shrink the AVM enough to remove it safely. She will need to have all her appointments and treatments in Boston. This will incur great costs for me for travel, lodging, as well as time off from work to accompany her for this treatment course. I will not be compensated while being by her side.

Any monetary assistance would be greatly appreciated. But most of all the prayers and thoughts of all mean the most.