Hi all, my name is Katie Marx and I am starting this GoFundMe on behalf of my sister Emily McReynolds, her husband/my brother-in-law, Miles, and their two young children—Matthew (3 years old) and Madeline (9 1/2 months old).

During the past several months, Miles has started experiencing a number of different health issues—starting with a random pain behind his left eye which got progressively worse, then painful lumps which started to appear all on his neck and back, and he was having lots of pain and weakness throughout his body. He saw several doctors and finally got scans done which showed he had several tumors, one under his left eye and several other internal spots including his pancreas, one lung, and his adrenal glands. He got a biopsy done which took over a month to come back with results, but unfortunately, he just last week got an official diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic melanoma.

Unfortunately, the cancer has been spreading quickly and during the past month while waiting for the biopsy results, it metastasized into even more organs and there is a tumor sitting on the vertebrae in his back/spine which is extremely painful and is severely limiting his mobility. He is currently admitted at UIC hospital up in Chicago and will be starting a specialized immunotherapy treatment meant to target the mutated cancer gene and hopefully prevent it from growing any more. In the next few weeks, he will also be starting radiation treatment to target the tumor in his spine and hopefully shrink it down enough to get him walking again. He is also receiving palliative care to manage the severe pain he is experiencing.

Right now, Miles is unable to return to work indefinitely. 

We would so greatly appreciate any amount that people can donate to help their family with all the mounting medical bills, the cost of gas to go back and forth to Chicago so much, and just the general cost of living with having two small kids and having no income indefinitely. Any amount would be helpful and so greatly appreciated during this extremely difficult and stressful time. Miles is a fighter and he is going to fight this cancer with everything he has, but I want him to know he’s not facing the battle alone! So let’s all rally together and show Miles/the McReynolds family how much we love them and give them all the support we can! Thanks so much everyone ❤️