Luke Brill's Cancer Fundraiser

For all those that don’t know me or the cause we have been fighting for, my name is Luke Brill and I have been battling GIST tumors for almost 6 years. This form or cancer is extremely rare with no cure, with only four types of chemotherapy that inhibit its growth. In the beginning we believed that 3 years of Gleevec, the first round of chemotherapy, would defeat this disease. What we’ve learned since then is this treatment has no known factors that can kill the tumor and let the patient go into remission. We discovered that I had this disease the day my wife was giving birth to our son in 2016. As the surgeon was informing her of what the c-section would detail I began to feel flush and feverish. Because of this I stayed back in the room while my wife was taken away to give birth. Shortly after they took her from the room the degree of pain began to increase, not wanting to chance giving my wife or new son something I made the decision to return home and hope that it was simply a 24 hour bug and could return to the hospital the next day. Throughout the night my symptoms intensified and I was rushed to the same hospital my wife was now resting in after bringing my son into this world. My surgery was traumatic and though I survived it we have lived in fear from that day forward.

Fast forward to where we are currently and life has changed dramatically. We are now on our 3rd of 4 chemotherapy treatments after the tumors mutated and the first stopped working. The second chemo, sunitinib, had no effect on the new mutation of my tumors and we saw exponential growth. My third round of chemo has many of the same debilitating side effects as the first two. I experience extreme joint, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, nausea, open sores on my hands and feet, high blood pressure, exhaustion and issues with my memory. We battle these symptoms daily while still trying to take care of our now 5 year old son and our 14 year old daughter. My son has only known a father who is sick and at times can do little in terms of being the father his sister had for so many years before this disease became a part of our lives. We have lived through wound vacs, surgeries, ileostomies and now covid throughout this disease but somehow kept moving forward as best as we could as a family. I am exhausted everyone and it is a daily fight to find the energy to fight this disease on a daily basis. We are finding that we are climbing deeper and deeper into debt trying to survive this and that is with incredible health insurance. My wife is forced to work from 7-3:30 during the day then DoorDash Tuesday through Friday, sometimes Saturday, from 5-9pm. What we now have is not a functional family, or the time we should be sharing together depending on how much time I have left. Fact is that Oncologists who treat this form of cancer hope to see 3 years of positive outcome with the first chemo Gleevec and then the numbers go down from there. Generally they see 6 months at best, sometimes more, from the remaining 3 chemo treatments. Given the second had no effect on my tumors that puts us at hopefully a year or a little more unless they come up with another chemotherapy option for this disease between now and then. My family, like so many others needs help fighting this. I don’t have the energy to do the things I once was able to and need to be concentrating on spending this time with my family and fighting for others that are struggling with the same trauma as our own.

Anyone who follows my feeds on Twitter knows that $1 of every $5 will be donated to Patient Services Inc. Our first donation to this foundation was $803 and I know myself and a lot of others would like to see the next donation be much higher. They are an amazing foundation that helps families with their healthcare premiums and prescription medications. As long as our government and big pharmaceutical continue to earn billions on treating this disease rather than curing it, millions will lose this battle yearly because they can’t afford the medication to keep them alive. In the richest country in the world, we see our most powerful and wealthy individuals gain wealth by letting these people stay a statistic. The numbers have been studied carefully by them and until they can become richer from a cure this is the system we all have to face when our family or friends are affected by this and many other diseases. Though I am only setting my goal on this fundraiser at the amount not reached to this point from my previous Gofundme, I hope that many will continue to give after that goal is reached. When we’ve reached our goal our donation will change from $1 for every $5 to $3 of every $5 to Patient Services. This means that at that time $10k in donations will count for $6k to families that desperately need financial assistance fighting to stay alive. I will continue this fight until I don’t have the energy to do so. I will continue to pursue our politicians, media and big pharmaceutical for the damage they do to families like mine on a daily basis. This is however a battle that one person can’t fight on their own. This fight needs the help of so many that aren’t afraid to stand up and demand justice for those that are swept into the cracks. We started out as a resistance here on Twitter, we stood with each other and demanded change and justice for so many. In the last few months we have all seen that fall to pieces as phony resistors have turned into boosters for numbers alone. Their only interest is in gaining numbers for their own ego. It is time for all of us that once stood together to come back in unity and fight for those that cannot fight for themselves. It is time that those in Washington heard our voices loud and clear without an excuse to turn their backs to us. Follow our feeds on Twitter, share the stories you read about with as many as you know, donate to as many causes that fight the injustices that are allowed to take place in our healthcare system and show empathy for the millions of families like mine that fight diseases like this daily with little to no help from those in position to do so. I want to thank all that get involved in this fight and all that donate to its cause. You are all heroes to me and so many other families like my own.