Hello, and thank you for taking your time to read our story about our beloved family member, Bruce Pizzichillo. His story begins in 2008 when he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C genotype 4 with early cirrhosis. It is a rare diagnosis and is in the bottom 2% of all cases in the U.S. He started treatment in August 2008-August 2009 and was taking interferon ,ribavirin and nitazoxinide. That treatment was successful and the virus was clear from his body in 2009. He then relapsed six weeks later when the virus returned.
His  life as an artist(a self employed partnership with his wife Dari) came to a screeching halt when he lost 45 lbs of all muscle. For the first time in 33 years of working as a glass blower he could not physically perform his job anymore.








He started physical therapy in the gym for the next two years to rebuild his strength so he could blow glass again. He is still at a diminished level of working because his virus level is still very high. ( the last count was over 14 million which is at least 14 times higher than normal) At the same time, in his seven years of battling the illness he  has cheated death and is willing to take any measure possible to continue to live his life.
He still has many dreams that he would love to be able to fulfill, both personally and professionally. He is a creative artist who once healthy, will be able to work hard to create beautiful works of art. Which will let him provide art to his collectors so that he will be able to take care of his family and home.
In his yearly checkup with his liver specialist he was informed about a new generation of drugs that have 90% cure rate for genotype 1 and 2. Due to the rarity of his diagnosis of genotype 4 there has not been enough testing done with the drugs. His doctors do believe that there is a high percentage of the new drugs being able to cure his illness.
Gilead Sciences is a company based out of Foster City, CA that has created these new drugs. There are two drugs (Ledipasvir and Sofosbuvir) that are combined in one pill called Harvoni. Unfortunatley, the new drugs are expensive and not covered by his insurance.  The pills cost $1,000 each and it is a three month treatment totaling $168,000.
He is currently in the process of applying for charity care with the pharmaceutical company, but there is only a small chance of being approved. Even if he were blessed enough to be approved, he would not be able to work during the three months of treatments, which would prevent him from providing for his family.
We humbly ask for any contribution that you can make to help with his treatment. Please know that any amount that you could spare would make a great difference in his battle to finally rid his body of this illness. The family of Ann Pizzichillo, thanks you for taking your time and reading this.