Hi, my name is James Godley and I’m fundraising for my friend Paul Mills and his family, Marcie, their three children, Tyson (CCC), Jackson (working at Nutrien), and Samantha (11th grade) who live in New Bern, NC.

Paul has worked in the building industry for the past 25 + years.

In March of this year Paul was diagnosed with Acute Myloid Leukemia (AML) completely out of the blue. Literally he woke up in the middle of the night with extreme pain and his upper thighs and lower back: nothing seem to help: went to the urgent care that morning, and by late afternoon, Paul, who is not a complainer called 911 because of the extreme pain. While in the hospital, a CT scan picked up an abnormality of his bone marrow. After initially being told, they could rule out any form of leukemia or lymphoma, and about to be discharged, the oncologist came back in and explained how upon further testing, he did, in fact, have AML.

He was immediately sent to Chapel Hill cancer, hospital to start aggressive chemotherapy, where he would spend the next 45+ days in the oncology ward. After numerous treatments and scares over the next four months, a donor in Germany had been selected as a genetic match for a bone marrow transplant. That transplant took place on August 17, 2023. after spending another four weeks in the bone marrow transplant, unit at Chapel Hill, he was released from the hospital but has to remain in the Chapel Hill area for the next three months so he can continue his weekly appointments at the clinic, where they are closely monitoring his progress.

during this time, Paul’s wife and caregiver developed a mass in her abdomen that turned out to be a lipoma that was removed with simple outpatient surgery. But within days of the original surgery, Marcie was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery due to a hematoma and blood clots that had formed at her original surgery site.

I believe anyone who is going through a situation like this would know how hard it is to maintain the financial responsibilities of taking care of your family, as well as having to pay for travel expenses, food and additional lodging and uncovered expenses, at the same time with even less income, while still trying to beat this cancer. There is only so much the insurance will pay.

I know Paul and his family would support others in a situation like this, let’s show him and his family the support they need now.