Walker's Medical Fund

You know that friend in your life who is always there for you, even when you don't realize you need them? Ready to help out with any hard task, or go to dinner with you just cuz, or stops by unexpected to say "Hi! It's always good to see you!" Always up for a laugh, always positive, rarely sick, big as a bear, and a giver of the best hugs.

Walker Pennington is one of the very best of the best of this best kind of friend. He's 32 years old and works in the Security industry. He's the biggest geek-- loves to attend conventions, play games, read comics, and spend time with his friends, his girlfriend, and their cats.


Walker just learned he has a type of cancer called Refractory Anemia With Excess Blasts. It's the sort of thing that can turn into leukemia, if it isn't already. It needs to be treated quickly, and aggressively.

This illness hit Walker suddenly, in just the past five months. It's nearly wiped him out already. He's exhausted, has no appetite, knows he's very sick, and his treatment is going to put him through Hell.


We are Rebecca, Walker's girlfriend and caregiver, and Anna, a friend of 8 years, and we would appreciate your help. There are daunting financial realities that come with illness and treatment at this scale. Walker doesn't want to burden anyone at all, but we are aware that the people who know him do not consider it a burden to ease the suffering and worry of such a friend.

Tuesday, November 8, Walker will check into Stanford Cancer Center, for aggressive Chemotherapy: wiping out all of his bad bone marrow cells and all his good cells, more or less removing his entire immune system. He'll be there at least 30 days.

When the chemo treatment is over, hoping and assuming Walker has survived it ok, the next step will be to inject donor stem cells. If Walker's body accepts the transplant, he will, in theory be cured of this disease for the rest of his life. If it does not, then the likelihood that this becomes an incurable, True Leukemia is near certain. The prognosis is very poor.

Due to the aggressive cancer treatment and his extreme illness, doctors say Walker won't be able to work for at least 6 months. A social worker is helping to see what income he can get while being treated, but we're not sure how long that will actually take, and we're not sure what the final bill from Stanford will be. Walker's medical insurance has already balked at him getting treatment at Stanford and may not cover it 100%. It just makes a tough situation worse.

We've done some math and the funds we're asking for will cover housing costs and Walker's regular bills for six months, plus what we guesstimate will be included in his medical bills.

You may want to know more about Walker and his ordeal, so here's some background in his own words:


"In June, I went on a great cruise with Rebecca's family to the Caribbean, and while I was out there I got quite sick.

While treated with antibiotics, the symptoms never completely abated, and I was left pursuing several doctors until someone would look into it more seriously.

On the 6th of October, they called me into the ER and hospitalized me. My red blood cell count had fallen to the point where they needed to give me a blood transfusion, and my body is creating premature white blood cells known as "blasts ". This is extremely bad, and a sure-fire sign of either myelofibrosis, also known as "pre-Leukemia" , or Leukemia itself."

Walker has had three bone marrow biopsies in the last month. The results have shown that his illness is
Refractory Anemia With Excess Blasts (RAEB). Further, there is the presence of a single blast with an Auer rod which raises concern that it is type 2.

The chance of RAEB-2 turning into acute myeloid leukemia may be as high as 50%.

The median survival is 16 months for RAEB-1, whereas it is 9 months for RAEB-2.

More words from Walker, "I thank everyone for standing by me during these hard times, lending me your support, asking your questions, and generally just... Caring. Your kindness and your concern empower me to go on, and I am confident despite the heavy uncertainties that I will come out of this on top...if life hasn't brought me down yet, I don't think it's going to start.

I intend to fight this to the very best of my ability, and I intend to win."

Walker meeting his niece and god daughter for the first time since her birth, yesterday.

We will post updates as significant things happen.