Hi everyone. Thank you for visiting this gofundme page. For those of you who don’t know Larry

Napolitano on a personal level, or his story, this all started about a year ago. Larry, a senior at Penn

State was home on Christmas break when he had a snowboarding accident and broke his neck.

Everyone was stunned that he could break his neck from such a minor accident, including his doctors.

While Larry underwent two surgeries to fix his neck, the doctors were going over scans to see what had

caused the injury. After months of pain, tests, and many visits to the hospital (during Covid, no less) it

was discovered that Larry and his family were about to face the hardest thing any of them had ever

gone through. Larry had stage 4 Osteosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer.

 

Knowing Larry, he does not give up easily and bone cancer would be no different. As soon as he was able

(with limitations from his neck) he began chemo and radiation therapy. He traveled back and forth to

University of PA Hospital in Philly for months. No visitors allowed and only one parent at a time for

limited hours due to Covid restrictions.

 

After a few months of infusion Chemotherapy (with significant side effects) his oncologist confirmed the

therapies were not working. Next step was a chemo pill. This was made specifically for him and was not

easy to get a prior authorization. That too did not work. He did not give up, there was one more pill form

to try. He immediately began his third try at shrinking the cancer cells. Sadly, that too was unable to

shrink the tumors and kill the cancer. Which brings us to now.

 

In October, Larry was admitted to the University of PA Hospital for severe chest/back pain causing a loss

of mobility. He completed a series of 5 radiation treatments to shrink the tumors, however, due to

nerve damage he is now confined to a wheelchair and is not able to walk/stand. It is unclear if Larry will

walk again but Larry hasn’t given up and his family and friends haven’t either. Larry is working with

occupational and physical therapist at home.

 

During this time, we are graciously asking for donations to help return some normalcy to the Napolitano

family and allow Larry to be able travel while in his wheelchair. Our goal is to provide a handicap

accessible van, ease travel costs associated with driving back and forth to Philly with extended hotel

stays, and possibly purchase an electronic wheelchair or other medical equipment as needed.

If you can help in any way via charitable donation or sharing this page, thank you so much.

 

Thank you all for your continued support during a dark time to bring normalcy back to the Napolitano family.