Hi all, we don’t often publicize the personal details of our brother Nick’s day-to-day struggles with Leukemia to protect his privacy but right now he and our family need extra love, support, prayers, and financial assistance. Nick is currently in the Neuro ICU and he needs our support now more than ever. After almost 12 years of fighting this fight on our own and accruing piles of medical debt, we’ve conceded and are asking for help.

Nick has been hospitalized since Saturday 8/21 after a bout of non-stop seizures in which he began aspirating. These have continued despite doubling the anti-seizure med he is on. Nick was in the midst of a 10-day radiation treatment when the seizures began. He is currently admitted to the Neuro ICU where his brain is being constantly monitored by an EEG. New scans now show cancer cells in his brain and cerebral spinal fluid have increased. Additionally, Nick is fighting sepsis, aspiration pneumonia, and his doctors are trying to rule out a bacterial meningitis infection in his brain.

To protect his privacy, we won’t go into detail at this time about what symptoms he is experiencing in the hospital. Just know Nick needs your support and prayers to see him through this.

If you know our family, you know what an incredible fighter Nick is. He was first hospitalized Christmas of 2009— and on Thursday, December 31, 2009, doctors told our parents he wouldn’t live through the weekend. He woke up from a medically induced coma a few months later at the age of 25 to learn about his new diagnoses: Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and sudden total hearing loss, amongst other things. 11.5 years later and he’s surpassed every milestone and survived every prognosis he’s been given. Nick's strength and courage amidst all that he has endured over the years is unparalleled. While still Leukemia by nature, his white blood cells are actually now clear of cancer because the cancer has moved into occupying his brain and spinal fluid— causing tumors and severe neurological reactions. Nick's new diagnosis is Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis. Google it if you don’t want to sleep tonight.

Nick has endured everything from a stem cell transplant to multiple emergency brain surgeries to cyber knife radiation and everything in between. Without going into all of the gritty details surrounding each of his recent diagnoses, here are some of the significant highlights as of late: June of 2020 saw the cancer in his brain spread into the optic nerve, which is responsible for eyesight, and he lost all vision in his right eye. This summer, the cancer traveled down Nick's spine into his lumbar region which contains the nerves responsible for moving your legs. He hasn’t been able to walk well and has had debilitating leg pains ever since. He’s also experiencing extreme headaches due to the increased amount of cancer cells in his brain. To target the cancer cells in his lumbar region, radiation was necessary to avoid the possible paralysis of his legs that would occur if the cancer on his nerves went untreated any longer. As of Friday 8/20, Nick was on day 8 out of 10 of radiation. On day 6 (8/18) he began experiencing seizures despite being on a 2x/day anti-seizure med for the past 10 years. The last 2 days of radiation are being put on hold until his condition improves.

Despite all of Nick's distressing diagnoses over the past 11.5 years, this man deserves all of the recognition in the world and then some. Amid plans to attend law school in 2010, he was diagnosed with Leukemia and lost his hearing. Six grueling years later, he did not let anything inhibit his perseverance as he completed grad school at Chapman University in 2016 with a cumulative 4.0 and received his MBA. He is the only man who can stick out an 8 hour day of chemo only to come home to a 36-page paper to finish (and get 100%). Nick is the toughest, most resilient and most driven individual we have ever known and our biggest source of inspiration.

While the last 1.5 years have looked very different for people all over the world, it has presented an exceptional hardship for the immunocompromised. While most of us have resumed our day-to-day activities and re-entered the social sphere in the past year, Nick and our parents haven’t had an outing since February 2020. COVID is especially terrifying for people like him as doctors have shared that were he to contract COVID, there is a 97% chance he wouldn’t survive. If you thought quarantine was lonely, imagine how terribly isolating it has been for the immunocompromised.

My sisters and I have wanted to create this GoFundMe for a very long time to assist our parents. They work relentlessly 24 hours a day. Our dad became Nick's full time caretaker and despite receiving his own diagnosis of Prostate Cancer in 2017, which he is still fighting because unfortunately the cancer has metastasized, he dedicates 18 hours a day to researching, contacting doctors across the world, setting up doctors appts, attending both his and Nick’s appts, etc., often resulting in the neglect of his own personal battle with cancer. As a long time nurse-turned-friend at their hospital told our dad today, he is basically a self-taught nurse who might actually know more about cancer than most other nurses. Our mom works as a nurse, and when she isn’t with her own patients, every minute is spent looking after our brother and dad. She overworks herself day and night, and she deserves to have a break where she can be fully present for my brother and not worry about missing work or bills. Their dedication is unwavering and they are more resilient than anyone we’ve ever known. For example, our dad went 19 hours in the emergency room this past weekend without eating, sitting, or using the restroom. Any of those things would mean diverting his attention away from Nick for longer than a second— something neither him nor our mom are willing to do. 

They are currently researching alternative treatments as well as experimental and clinical trials to get Nick into. The last one experimental trial they attempted was a CAR T-cell trial in Seattle in March 2019— they temporarily moved up there for a few weeks to participate before Nick was disqualified. Pre-trial routine labs showed a cancerous tumor had developed on his cerebellum, which prompted an emergency flight home to CA via Angel Flights and a direct admission into the hospital. Nick spent the following six weeks, including his 35th birthday in the ICU undergoing two emergency brain surgeries. Another one of the many times both of our parents have moved into the hospital room 24/7 for six weeks at a time without once leaving his side. Had they completed that trial, the out-of-pocket cost for CAR T-cell therapy is over $300,000— money they would have attempted to find through mortgages, loans, financial assistance, donations, etc. but likely wouldn’t have come close to. That sum wouldn’t even have included the cost of living for the three of them, relocation to Seattle, or any of his out-of-pocket costs for medications or doctors visits. Ideally we’d like to get Nick into another experimental trial down the road which, again not being covered by insurance, would be a hefty expense.

Out-of-pocket costs are in the thousands of dollars each month for his necessary care and medications. The primary goal of this fundraiser is to assist in paying for the cost of medical bills, medical debt, and ongoing treatments as well as assisting with bills and groceries for Nick and our parents so they don’t have to stress about being unable to work at this time. Remaining funds will be set aside for future emergencies to assure they will have the resources they need going forward to obtain necessary treatments without hesitation. We also hope to set aside a savings to assist in paying for another experimental trial or immunotherapy treatment down the road.


Thank you for reading this far. We are eternally grateful for the support of our family and friends over the past 12 years. Please consider donating if you’re able— anything helps— and please continue your prayers and well wishes for our brother and family. Any support our family can get during this time is endlessly appreciated.

Regardless of whether or not you can donate, please help us by sharing this GoFundMe in any way that you can.

Dear Nick, you inspire us daily and we all hope to grow up to be even half as ambitious, driven, resilient, intelligent, and focused as you are.

With Gratitude,

The Reed Family