We have started this GoFundMe on behalf of our cousin, Kevin Kraatz, who was diagnosed with Metastatic Testicular Cancer on 12/2/25 at the age of 22.

Donation Plans:

Your generous monetary donations will go towards: treatment co-pays, insurance costs & premiums, possible lapse in college enrollment expenses/placeholder fees, medications, recovery/alternative medicine services/ supplies, possible travel to/from Vallejo to finish finals for this semester.

No 22-year-old should ever have to draft up a bucket list, but here we are. Kevin's bucket list: to go on "Pinch my Salt" podcast with Sterling Spencer and to get barreled at Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch in Central Valley, CA.

Who is Kevin Kraatz?

Kevin is a smart, kind, hard-working, funny, athletic waterman. He loves to surf, swim and play water polo--anything in the water, he is there! He is in his Senior year of an intensive Marine Transportation Management degree at Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, CA. He has played water polo since he was 9 and now is an award-winning water polo player for the Keelhaulers in Vallejo as well as at Cathedral Cathlic High School in San Diego. He has accomplished so much and he still has his whole life ahead of him. Kevin was looking forward to graduating and diving right into his first job, in May 2025...this is all going to be put on hold.

Symptoms & Background:

Kevin had been having abdominal pain (that started to radiate to his back) for about a month prior to asking for medical help--he wrote it off as indigestion and nerve pain. He had also noticed a lump on one of his testicles. In between taking finals, he went to a Vallejo Urgent Care to get checked out.

They sent him to Vallejo Kaiser where he had an abdominal CT which found a suspicious tumor in his abdomen. The family made the decision to have him come home ASAP to get a thorough medical work-up with his parents present to support him.

12/1/25 His older brother, Riley (who also attends Cal Maritime), drove Kev home to Oceanside. Meanwhile Kev's Dad, Paul, has been working tirelessly to get his insurance and medical affairs arranged.

12/2/25 Kevin was fast-tracked from a San Diego Urgent Care (mainly because he didn't have a primary care physician in Southern CA) to Scripps Hospital, where doctors had been notified ahead of time and about six were waiting for him to arrive. Scans and testing were swiftly completed and Kevin got the life-altering news that he had Metastatic Non-Seminomatous Testicular Cancer.

12/3/25 Originally, the plan was for Kevin to have surgery to remove a testicle and the primary tumor, but that plan was aborted after the doctors found a mass growing into an artery that could break off during the operation and clot. Ongoing testing confirmed that the cancer has, in fact, spread and it was much worse than initially suspected.

12/4/25 The plan shifted and surgery was again postponed. The medical team decided Kevin will need chemotherapy and radiation over the next 4 months. His port was installed this day.

If you've made it this far, thank you for all of your time, reading through this GoFundMe and thank you for considering donating to Kev! ❤️