Support Mike Kellams in His Fight Against Cancer

Dear Friends and Family,

A few months ago, we received the news that our dad, Mike Kellams, had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, but routine surgery should help dad overcome this. A few days after the surgery, we were informed that it was a rare type of aggressive cancer called Plasmacytoid Urothelial Carcinoma that is unresponsive to chemotherapy. We were given the news that it had spread and is considered stage 4, meaning an additional surgery would be unnecessary and harmful to his quality of life. Without the options of chemotherapy or surgery, it seemed like an impossible battle to face.

Luckily, the FDA has recently approved immunotherapy treatments curated to treat this cancer. Currently we are blessed enough to have insurance cover the costs of the treatments which equate to roughly $51,000 every 3 weeks. If these treatments are successful, we can have some more time with our dad to make memories, but he will need the treatments indefinitely.

Recently, our insurance company, Anthem, has ended their program with the Indiana State Medical Association, leaving us to possibly look for insurance in the open marketplace come next year. We are currently unsure if we will be able to find insurance coverage for the costs of the treatments. It is possible we will be paying for the treatments out-of-pocket or a heavy premium fee to cover the treatments next year. We believe that our dad’s quality of life should not be limited by our insurance or lack thereof.

Our mom, Amy, has taken a leave of absence from work to help take care of dad and spend precious time with him. Dad is still working as much as he can, now working at about 50% while pushing through the side effects. Due to the whirlwind that life has thrown at us in these last few months, we are humbly asking our friends and family for help.

We have set up this GoFundMe page to help fund the costs of our dads’ treatments come next year. Any amount you would be willing to donate will help our family continue to fight this battle together. Should circumstances change, all raised funds will go to a trust for our brother Aaron who is on the autism spectrum and will need financial support.

Any donations or prayers are appreciated by us all.

Love always,

Braden, Aaron, Emily, and Lily