Dear Friends and Community ,

My name is Maria and I'm raising funds to help ease the burden so my husband can concentrate on what matters most - healing and staying strong.

Mike is an amazing human being that always puts others first. He is a loving husband, father, brother and PaPa to three Granddaughters and friend to many.

Mike was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in October. He will be starting immunomodulatory drugs very soon followed by a stem cell transplant and will need constant care throughout the treatment which can take over a year. We have an amazing team of doctors and nurses on our side but the financial side of things is challenging . The doctors estimate that approximately 16 weeks of immunomodulatory drugs with other medications and then he will be getting ready for the transplant which takes up to a year to recover, along with maintenance medication indefinitely.

The plan is to harvest his own stem cells ,do a round of immunomodulatory drug to kill as much remaining cancer cells as possible and then return the stem cells to rescue his body and rebuild his immune system. This cancer is not curable.

Recovery from the transplant is hard, he will need 24/7 care ,sterile environment until his immunity is rebuilt and loads of emotional support. I never thought we would be dealing with a life altering situation. It's been very hard the past year leading up to his diagnosis and it's only the beginning.

While we do have insurance, many of the associated costs-such as copays ,medications, treatments and travel expenses with upcoming preparation for his upcoming transplant and recovery.

Your Kindness and support- whether through donations, sharing this message, or keeping us in your prayers are deeply appreciated.

THANK YOU for taking the time to read this and being part in our support network through this difficulty journey.

What is Multiple Myeloma?

It's a rare type of cancer(1%of all cancers and only 10% of blood cancers) of plasma cells that form in the bone marrow, they over crowd the healthy cells and wreck havoc in the patients body. It weakens the bones making them very easy to break and can spread to internal organs.

Excessive plasma cells may eventually mass together to form tumors in various sites of the body, especially the bone marrow.