The CBI team has created this fundraiser in hopes to raise money for the Whillier family.   If you can donate any amount, it would be greatly appreciated and mean so much to us.

For a background on what Tyron has been going through & an update, please see the message below from his wife, Rachel:


Tyron was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder called Granulomatosis with polyangitis (aka GPA/Wegeners) in 2017. It had attacked his lungs, effectively destroying his right middle lobe and was active in about 20-40 others spots throughout the rest of his lungs. His best treatment option was Rituximab therapy (a form of chemotherapy). He underwent numerous infusions throughout 2017-2019. He also needed to take high doses of immunosuppressive steroids daily to ensure the disease stayed under control. This took a great toll on his health and put him in the hospital more than once.

In November 2018 he was admitted through the ER due to severe Methotrexate toxicity, one of the immunosuppressants he was instructed to take. Between April and June 2019 he underwent 3 separate surgical procedures to resolve issues caused by the heavy doses of medications he’s had to take.  In July of this year, he had an MRI that showed significant abnormalities in the white matter of his brain and we were informed that we needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible. Over the next month, he had multiple MRIs, xrays, CT scans, countless blood tests, two spinal taps, and a brain tissue biopsy via craniotomy. Thus far we have a diagnosis, but no cause or treatment plan. Tyron has been diagnosed with Meningioencephalitis, which is a combination of both meningitis and encephalitis. The source may be viral or autoimmune, for which the treatments are opposing.

So far all we have been able to do is an IVIg treatment to boost his immune system while we wait. We cannot proceed until they identify a source, and Tyron’s mental state is deteriorating daily. His care level is highly advanced right now as he doesn’t have the mental capacity to complete most basic tasks on his own. We are waiting for results to come back from UCSF and have applied for a rehabilitation program that may help him in regaining lost skills to be more self-sufficient but insurance has yet to agree to cover the program. We have also been instructed to apply to the Undiagnosed Diseases Network after UCSF completes its testing because they do not expect to identify the cause there. That will require travel and hotel stays while we work with the network to find a way to stop what’s happening. It will be weeks before we have any further direction.