Please help us save Zoey

October of 2016 after months of back and forth to hospitals ER, Drs office, and specialists, what was thought of as growing pains,  fevers to be viral, rashes to be allergies, a small compressed thoracic fracture in the spine maybe an old injury that with Zoeys active lifestyle got re-injured, and finally a sprain in her leg from cheerleading, ended up being Stage 4, High Risk, Neuroblastoma cancer.  With a large mass located on her spine too large and dangerous to operate and the cancer which originated in her abdomen had already spread to a very high percentage of her bone marrow, pelvis, shoulders, hips, femur, knees, ankles ...Cancer... such a small word with such devastating frightening meaning.

Zoey was only 8 years old.

After two years of fighting the fight of her life, a major surgery, 18 rounds of chemotherapy, 2 bone marrow transplants, 20 rounds of radiation, numerous blood transfusion, bone marrow aspirations, finally in May of 2018 Zoey was declared cancer free. A trial, DFMO was started in the hopes of keeping the cancer away. But it didn’t.

If being told your child has Cancer is devastating, being told that the Cancer is back is ..........

In late November of 2018, Neuroblastoma showed its ugly face again. A small tumor was found again in her abdomen.  By early January there were 5 tumors in five different areas, alive and kicking its way back into her body.  Six more rounds of high doses of I.C.E, 120 hrs of straight chemo for 2 weeks every month for six months. And still the tumor in her abdomen, the mother cell only grew in size.  With no other known treatments or trials available in Florida, the fight has to be fought in New York, where there is presently a trial by the name of Hu3F8.  A series of stronger chemo plus antibodies with brutal side effects. Where as Dr Kushner told me, “ you will be seeing her getting worse before getting better “ is part of the protocol. We are on round 3 of what started out to be 5 rounds of chemo now it looks like 7 to 10 rounds of treatment with surgery in between plus radiation.

This treatment calls for us to travel to New York every month for a period of two to three weeks or twice a month depending on the Protocol. The trial is not covered by insurance. The unexpected daily expenses of food, medicine, supplements, lodging, daily transportation to and from hospital which needs to be private due to levels, weather and emergency 2:00am run to the hospital.

Financially is more than we can handle.  We have been “robbing Peter to pay Paul” for so long now that there is nowhere from which to take. It’s so frightening not being able to see a clear picture in order to continue forward.

I’m asking for your help. Please help us save Zoey. Any amount is never too little and may God bless.

You can follow her entire journey on Instagram by going to @ZoeyStrongPavon