My Dad's Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia Diagnosis

Anyone that knows me knows that my Dad is my personal superhero. He holds our family together and is truly an amazing man. A few months ago, our family received some awful news that my Dad, Geoffrey Bennett, has been diagnosed with Chronic Neutrophilic Leukemia, an extremely rare cancer of the blood with just 200 recorded cases in history. He has been given a possible 24 months to live given this diagnosis.

We were very fortunate to learn that he qualified for a clinical trial of an experimental drug to try and cure or mitigate this disease, but only time will tell how effective it will actually be. The clinical trial is taking place at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, which is a 7 hour and 330-mile roundtrip from our house. He has to go to Moffitt once a week for the next two months for this treatment, and after that the frequency of his trips will change, but it is still a very burdensome trip on him and my Mom who accompanies him on this journey. We have already asked if the testing and lab work could be done closer to home, but we were informed that he must go to Moffitt for the clinical trial.

If the trial drugs don’t work, his only other option would be a bone marrow transplant, which is already very deadly in itself, especially when you are older. The bone marrow transplant would include 4-5 weeks in the hospital at Moffitt, 2 months living in Tampa after discharge with 24-hour supervision by a caretaker, which would have to be my Mom. Recovery from a BMT takes an average of 6 months, in which he could not work, and neither could my Mom as she would have to be his caretaker.

We have just begun this difficult journey on a long road to a hopeful recovery, and we have already received a medical bill for more than $20,000. We are anticipating that at the end of all this, the medical bills will easily be in the hundreds of thousands, all of which apparently will not be covered by insurance. This is obviously way beyond our financial ability, and we need all the help we can get.

Funds raised will be used for weekly trips to Tampa (which neither my Dad nor Mom will get paid for from their jobs, as they’ve already used up their PTO just getting this terrible diagnosis), gas for the weekly 330-mile round trip, unpaid leave time from their jobs, medical bills, etc.

Even if you are not able to donate, we really appreciate you reading this, and if you could possibly share this fundraiser, we would be eternally grateful! For more information on CNL, here is a website resource that I have been using to research this awful disease: https://www.leukaemiacare.org.uk/support-and-information/information-about-blood-cancer/blood-cancer-information/leukaemia/chronic-neutrophilic-leukaemia/. Please help us in any way that you can, and please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you!