Support Tate Akins Cancer Journey (Nate Akin's Son)

Support for Nate Akin's Son, Tate

In December 2023, Nate Akin’s 8-year-old son, Tate, was involved in a serious ATV accident. Just weeks later, the Akin family received the heartbreaking news that Tate had been diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer, located in his right femur. More recently, they learned that the cancer has metastasized.

Nate is a valued member of our Glenn Rieder team, and we are rallying together to support him and his family during this incredibly difficult time. We’ve set up this GoFundMe to help ease the burden of the mounting medical bills and provide some relief as they navigate Tate’s treatment and upcoming surgery on Friday, May 16th.

Any contribution—big or small—will make a meaningful difference and allow the Akins to focus their energy where it matters most: on Tate’s healing and recovery. Thank you for your support and generosity.

Tate's Story from Nate Akin:

December 31, 2023, Tate was in an ATV accident with his older brother while driving next to their house that resulted in a serious skull fracture. It took until the end of February 2024 to fully recover and return to normal life by a miracle no doctor or surgeon told us was possible. After having 20 metal plates surgically attached to his skull, he recovered and returned to elementary school on Feb 27th , 2024. He started complaining of pain in his right femur 2 weeks later. After the pain did not seem to go away, my wife took him for an X-ray with his primary care doctor. That night I was out of town in Milwaukee for my new position with GR, we were told by his doctor that we needed to rush to Norton Hosptial in Louisville KY to get a biopsy completed. I drove all night just to find out the next day he was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma on his right femur bone. After 12 weeks of chemo, he had that section of his femur bone removed at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and had a bone graft surgery to keep his leg. This was followed by 16 weeks of chemo through the middle of November 2024. After we were finally gaining some normalcy in his life, he returned to school the last day before Christmas break, only to have an accident at the school that resulted in his metal plates breaking in a one in a million accident the doctors called it. After being down another 8 weeks, he was back to walking, and fully back to normal in everyday life and school. He had his 3-month scans after chemo just to find out the most devastating news of his cancer metastasizing into both of his lungs. Since that time, we have been giving him an experimental regimen of meds and supplements in hopes of avoiding chemotherapy. However, he still must go through 2 consecutive surgeries to remove the nodules from both of his lungs. This will be spread across a total of 4-6 weeks including recovery times. This of course could still result in added chemotherapy if our regimen has not been working as it should. We are just requesting he be lifted in prayer, and for any help and support we can get at this time. One day at a time is all we can stand to think about.