Quick Summary: Mike “Gilly” Gillham and his wife, Amanda, are currently leasing a vacation rental apartment in Palo Alto, near Stanford University Hospital. They are eagerly awaiting a life-saving bone marrow transplant for Mike. Sadly, the first donor was not a viable candidate. As Mike and Amanda wait for Stanford to assess another potential donor, they are incurring additional housing and medical expenses. Friends and family hope to lessen Mike and Amanda’s financial burden through this GoFundMe effort.
Any donation is appreciated and will be provided directly to Mike’s housing costs. Following the start of the bone marrow procedure, Mike will need to remain near the hospital for three months.
Background: (Sorry for the lengthy review as we bring everyone up to date on Mike’s treatment). As many of you know, Mike has been fighting a rare skin lymphoma that has metastasized to his lymph nodes and bone marrow. This battle began nearly five years ago, during Mike’s final year of his career as a prison guard. For about four years various dermatologists were unable to effectively diagnose and treat the reason Mike was suffering from debilitating skin rashes. In January of 2025 a skin biopsy (one of several taken during his treatment), finally revealed Mike’s skin issues were the result of a Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma. Mike was diagnosed with Sezary Syndrome, a very rare skin cancer that only affects one in million people. There is currently no cure for this disease. As Gilly would later share, “this is not the lottery you want to win.”
A few months passed before Mike’s insurance transferred over to a different carrier, allowing him to be seen by specialists at Stanford University Hospital. Mike’s cancer team is headed by Doctor Youn Kim, the Director of Stanford's Multidisciplinary Cutaneous Lymphoma Program. Over the last year Doctor Kim has overseen a treatment regimen, including different immunotherapies, radiation, and repeated chemotherapy infusions. Mike has made roughly two dozen trips to Stanford from the Central Coast. This aggressive treatment has extended Mike’s life and reduced the numerous cancerous tumors, as well as the cancer cells in his blood. Again, while there is no cure, Dr. Kim hopes to knock the cancer into remission through restarting Mike’s immune system using a bone marrow transplant from a matching donor.
While Mike has finally reached the point in his treatment to receive the bone marrow procedure, finding an acceptable donor has been troublesome. Mike needs a donor that is a near perfect match of human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a protein found on most cells in our bodies, including those in our immune system. The closer the HLA match, the better chance that a bone marrow transplant will succeed. Ideally, the bone marrow doctors want a donor with a “10/10” match.
Stanford Hospital turned to the National Marrow Donor Program in an effort to find Mike a match. This international registry has about 40 million people identified through genetic samples. Only twenty people in the registry are a “10/10” match to Mike (roughly one in every two million people). In February a matching donor was identified and volunteered to participate, donating this live-saving bone marrow. Mike and Amanda moved to the vacation rental near the hospital and Mike started another round of intensive chemotherapy treatments in preparation to receive the anonymous donor’s gift. Sadly, after starting the procedure, the donor was found to have a medical condition preventing her from proceeding with the procedure. As you can imagine, this was heartbreaking news for Mike and Amanda. They remain at the vacation rental in Palo Alto.
This past week, during Mike’s ongoing treatment, Mike learned the hospital’s bone marrow team has identified and started screening another potential “10/10” donor. Lord willing, this new donor will be available to participate in the transplant by early May. The quick acquisition of another donor from such a small pool of candidates is great news!
Mike and Amanda appreciate your continued prayers and support. Notes of encouragement can be sent to PO Box #831, Pismo Beach, CA 93448. All cards and letters are being forwarded to Mike and Amanda’s temporary address in Palo Alto.
Mike and Amanda remain hopeful that God is not done with Mike, yet!