Support Teddy's Fight Against T-Cell Lymphoma

The week before Christmas Teddy Groat seemed like a regular six-year-old. He loved Legos and Minecraft and hated vegetables. By the first week of January, he was a “kid with cancer” — diagnosed with an aggressive T-cell lymphoma, that had caused a large mass in his chest. By the second week of January, he just wanted to be done with the whole ordeal. It’s with good reason they say cancer sucks. Needles, nausea, and a port in his chest to pour in the weekly chemotherapy wasted no time in sucking the fun and the normalcy out of Teddy’s life.

It pretty much did the same for his parent’s life, and that of his nine-year-old sister. Like a lot of us, they were living paycheck to paycheck, making enough to put food on the table, make the house payment, keep the family car running, and afford a few Christmas presents for the four of them — but barely.

Cancer sucks for Teddy, and it also sucks for his family’s budget. Teddy’s mom, Veronica Groat, had to immediately quit working to be 24/7 with her son while he was in the hospital for the first two weeks. Now, that round-the-clock care includes weekly trips, 45 minutes one way, to take Teddy in for chemotherapy.

Meanwhile, Teddy‘s father, Josh Groat, is working all the hours he can get, but he also has to juggle taking care of their nine-year-old daughter, as well as making emergency trips to the hospital when Teddy’s vitals suddenly take a turn for the worse. Their income has been effectively cut in half, while their expenses have close to doubled. There is no way they can make it without help.

The cancer hasn’t spread to Teddy's bones or his brain — that’s good news. It was, however, found in his kidneys. The chemo is helping with that, and it has also helped to shrink the mass in his chest. The bad news is the cancer is not going away anytime soon. The doctors have told them that in the best-case scenario, this will be a two-year ordeal for Teddy and his family.

The combination of Veronica’s lost wages and the extra expenses mean they go about $2000 in the hole every month. That means they will be at least $48,000 short by the time Teddy is done with treatments.

The bottom line is every dollar makes a difference. Raising this $48,000 means they can keep their house, they can keep food on their table, they can afford gas for their car and keep it running. Hopefully they will even be able to afford a few birthday and Christmas presents.

But only if we all help. Nothing is always nothing, but all the “somethings” add up. So that’s why we are doing this GoFundMe. To give people a chance to do “something“ because even if it’s just a little something, we believe with faith, hope, trust, some prayers, maybe even some pixie dust, together we can get this family through this.

So, yes, cancer sucks. But when we join together, it loses its power to rob us of our joy, of our love, and of our ability to help Teddy and his family make it to the end of this journey knowing they were seen, supported, and loved.

Giving isn't the only way to help, either: we would be so grateful if you could simply share this campaign on your own social media sites as a way to expand its reach.

On behalf of Teddy, who has now turned seven, and his family, thank you so much for your “something” and all the kindness, compassion and love it represents.