A 5yo cancer superhero and his family
An update on Carson and a brothers plea for your help.
4 years ago, my 1 year old nephew was diagnosed with a rare cancer and our lives would forever change that day.
Tonight was literally the last straw. The worms have taken over. I’m once again asking for you to help my brother’s family. Let me update you on Carson’s journey and I’ll explain the worms along the way.
Imagine a scenario where you have 3 little ones at home, your oldest just turning 5 years and your youngest, 3 months. Money is tight, the mortgage is due. Life was never promised to be easy but you are making it work.
Now add the complication of your oldest child and only boy battling a rare terminal cancer. Your wife has not been able to work much over the last four years because she spends the majority of her time running your son to doctors appointments, hospitals, clinics and numerous scans. Again, not easy but you and your wider family have pulled together and you are finding a way to make it work, barely, but you do what you must.
Enter the global pandemic. We can all relate to various quarantine struggles of the past year plus. For a moment, please consider what these additional COVID 19 challenges will mean to your “rare” family. Free (family and friends) childcare means exposing your at-risk child to a potential deadly virus. Medical travel, related hotel stays, necessary hospital visits all adding to the exposure, costs and stress.
The last straw… the plant manager job keeping your family of 5 afloat is now terminated, your manufacturing plant is being moved to Mexico. There will be a small severance period but not even long enough to make a second post-employment mortgage payment. Your dual-income-turned-single-income household just became a zero income household. Your oldest child is still gravely ill. Your newborn is surviving on free breast milk for now but will shortly join the other two children at the table as an additional mouth to feed. Unemployment helps but is far from enough and will run out quickly. Your State does not even offer the supplemental benefits made infamous by the media. You turn to your land. Haying your fields is now the only source of possible income while you search for your next job. Farm work is hard and the net income potential limited but again, you do what you must.
You complete two of the four seasonally expected hay harvests that you so desperately need. Cash from selling the hay bales seeps in. Just before harvest number 3, the worms arrive. Within days, the worms decimate your Bermuda grass fields. There will be no more harvests this season.
This scenario is not only real life, it’s that of my brother and his young family.
The last four years have been everything but easy for my brothers and his family. This GoFundMe was originally set up back in 2017 when Carson was first diagnosed. The generosity of total strangers was a much needed blessing to my brothers family at that time.
As for Carson…
Two weeks ago, Carson became patient number 8 (patient number 1 in the phase II portion) of an early stage immunotherapy clinical trial run by the National Institute of Health in Washington DC. It’s promising, yes. But it is also completely uncharted waters. Of the 7 patients before him, less than half are still on treatment. He still has a long road ahead with no real known alternatives. Success of this trial for Carson will range anywhere from “one more day” to, if we are lucky, a complete cure. At this point, we are hoping for anything along this spectrum. Prayers and positive vibes are surely needed.
Please let me ask for your financial help once again. This time with a desperation behind these words that I never thought I would feel. Any donation you can afford would make an unbelievable difference.
Please share this story as well.
Thank you,
Uncle Tommy
