Nikos' Fight Against Colon Cancer

When you make a minimum $25 donation to Nikos, you will receive this amazing Bummer Free Zone T-Shirt, designed by Ricky Castillo and Kelly Goldman. This shirt not only bares Nikos’ handsome beard, but it also contains the Colon Cancer Awareness blue ribbon. Make your donation, and complete the order form below.

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While most people were getting ready for Thanksgiving and for Christmas this year, Nikolaos “Nikos” Safos who is 40 years young, found himself in the emergency room at the Hampton Veteran’s Affairs.  After a long 2 days of poking and prodding, the tests confirmed colorectal cancer, a diagnosis usually reserved for much older patients. 
 
For Nikos and his family this news was absolutely devastating.  He has been married for 5 years to Jena, and they have 3 children (1yo, 3yo, and a 10yo). Nikos has spent over twenty years serving others and the last almost 3 years, working as a hospice chaplain helping others.  Nikos is a wonderful provider, giver and servant to our community.  Please join us on this journey to fight against cancer!

How It Began…
In the early part of summer, Nikos didn’t quite feel like his normal self, something just wasn’t quite right, he could sense it. However, he didn’t have health insurance to go get his symptoms checkout. In July Nikos was digging a 4 foot hole in his backyard, but he was having a very difficult time at this task. His heart was racing, he was sweating profusely, and it just seemed like this hole was never going to get dug. As the summer went on, he became weaker and weaker. Several times during the summer and fall, he saw blood in his stool, his appetite decreased, he was a tad grumpy, he had to pull over while driving around time to nap, and he wasn’t sleeping. His wife, Jena, was worried, so she applied for Medicaid, it was denied. Then in October Jena received an email from the VA, stating that any veteran could apply for VA Healthcare. That very day, she applied for health benefits for Nikos. It was about 4 weeks later, they found out Nikos finally had healthcare coverage.
 
Two weeks before Christmas, Nikos was very pale, could barely walk a few steps without his heart feeling like it was going to explode, could not go up a flight of stairs, and was always short of breath. His wife asked him to go to the ER, just in case he was having a heart attack. He got to the ER, they sent him straight back to run the EKG and the Stress Test, both came back negative. About an hour after being there, the blood work came back, his hemoglobin was a 4 out of 15 and his iron levels were below a 1. There was a leak; somewhere in his body was a leak! Finally we have some answers.
 
The next step now, was to find the leak. Turns out, no leak…after 4 blood transfusions, 2 iron transfusions, and 4 days in the hospital being poked, scanned, analyzed and prodded, the doctors confirmed that Nikos has Stage 4 Colorectal Cancer that has metastasize to the right lobe of his liver, and into his colon lymph nodes.
 
Nikos has recieved 1 cycle of Avastin and Eloxatin intravenously, and takes Xeloda orally every day, this regiment will continue for a 6-week period. After this period, he will go back out to the VA for a follow up PET scan. The results of this scan; will indicate how they should move forward in the treatment plan.
 
Funds raised through this campaign will be used for:

Medical expenses
Super Fighting Cancer Foods
Travel to Drug Trials
Lost wages from being sick
 
T-shirt Order Form
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