PhilipStrong

Hello, Everyone. My name is Cassandra and I am writing to share my nephew’s story. I know many people have already helped my family once before, but the unexpected has happened. At this time, I am just trying to give my nephew a future at life and my sister the time she deserves to be there with him every minute that this life allows. I have done everything that I can for my sister and have nothing else to give besides my support, love and a shoulder to cry on. At the age of just 2 years old, Philip received devasting news that would change his world  forever! Our outgoing, wild, yet caring boy was diagnosed with Heptoblastoma Cancer. The news my sister Melissa and her husband Philip received, was news that no parent ever expects to hear. When my sister and brother-in-law discovered a hard lump on Philip’s stomach, they immediately drove to Akron Children's Hospital in Boardman, Ohio. On May 26th of 2018, Philip was diagnosed with stage 3 Heptoblastoma Cancer.  Heptoblastoma Cancer is a rare tumor (an abnormal tissue growth) that originates in cells in the liver. It is the most common cancerous (malignant) liver tumor in early childhood and begin in the right lobe of the liver. Philip was then life flighted the same day to Akron Children’s main hospital in Akron, Ohio. Not only were his parent’s (like any parents would be) world flipped upside down, they were about to hear the process of what their child would have to endure. Nothing in this world could prepare anyone for how much change was about to take place in their lives. Taking off work, struggling to pay bills, sleepless nights away from home was their new normal. Our community, friends and family came together to do anything they could to help my sister and her family. By their generous donations, my sister and brother-in-law were able to take some much needed time to not worry about finances and to be there for Philip. God was with Philip every step of the way and made sure to wrap his arms around him for the 86 day stay in the hospital.  He went through 6 rounds of chemo, 11 operations, and had half of his liver and gallbladder removed. Through all of this, Philip stayed strong and fought every step of the way! For his age and though being afraid and losing that spunk he once had, he NEVER GAVE UP!!!!!Fast forward to November of 2018, Philip got the news we all wanted to hear, HE’S CANCER FREE! He finally started to get his energy back, his smile became constant again and was able to just be a child again!Every few months, Philip had to return to his doctor for required check ups (standard procedure).  The most recent check-up, which was on August 25th of 2020 was just a stab in the gut! It’s happening AGAIN! Philip was just diagnosed with yet ANOTHER RARE FORM OF CANCER, this time it's leukaemia, that was caused from the chemo therapy treatments from the previous cancer. This can't be happening. Philip has been diagnosed with t-AML. "t-AML is a therapy related Acute Myeloid Leukemia and is a recognized clinical syndrome occurring as a complication after cytotoxic and/or radiation therapy." The treatment he received when he had liver cancer caused a white blood cell mutation which caused the leukemia. This is a very rare form of leukemia and a very hard type to treat. After everything his little body has suffered through and beat once already, he’s now having to fight the fight AGAIN at the age of 4. How can this be so? How does a perfectly healthy child develop not one, but TWO rare forms of cancer?The treatments for this cancer will also include chemo therapy treatments as well as a bone marrow transplant. He will receive 3 days of chemo, then stay in the hospital for approximately 30 days afterwards. He is at high risk for infection, and other treatment related complications so we have to remain in the hospital to be carefully monitored until his numbers come all the way back up. Once his numbers are back up we will be able to go home for about a week! The plan is that he receives 2 cycles of chemo, hopefully he is in remission and then onto a bone marrow transplant. This chemo treatment is a lot less toxic than the medicines he received prior.If anyone is willing to register to be a bone marrow donor please visit https://bethematch.org/I pray that this letter reaches as many of you as possible because I am desperate to help my sister in any way that I can. No one deserves this, especially not a young child! I wish that I could take the pain away from my sister and the cancer out of my nephew, but obviously, that’s not physically possible! Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you can help my family get through this fight and donate anything you can to help Philip's parents be able to take the time off of work they need too in order to be there for their son and be able to pay their medical bills. If you can't help financially, please keep Philip, his parents, and the medical staff in your thoughts & prayers