Bruce's Battle

Hi, my name is Marion and I am a neighbor of Bruce and Karen Cherelstein. We have lived across the street from these lovely people for 6 years now and consider them our second set of parents and grandparents to our two little girls. They are selfless, kind, and caring, among many other great qualities. They will do anything for anyone without question or complaint...even on the shortest of notice. The entire neighborhood is blessed to have them... especially the night and day watch that is Bruce and his pups!

It is our turn to help them now!

As most of you know, Bruce has been fighting Mantel Cell Lymphoma for a number of years and had been doing well. Unfortunately, over the past year the cancer returned and he underwent outpatient chemotherapy twice between August 2021 and January, both of which failed. He was transferred to University of MD to undergo inpatient chemotherapy for one week, receiving chemotherapy daily and the same scenario occurred in April 2022.

His second to last chemo attempt was via a pill that he took for multiple months, enduring many side effects, and with little improvement.

Here we are, September 2022, and the last ditch effort to save his life was the Car T cell transplant. In short, he had blood taken out and his white blood cells were sent to a lab, re-engineered and then put back in to his body with the goal that the new cells would attack the cancer. However, this came at a cost to Bruce and he became very ill. All of the side effects that were a possibility hit Bruce like a ton of bricks. He ended up in the neurological ICU for three days, unable to follow commands, at a high risk for seizures and unaware of his situation.

After 3 days, he had dramatically improved and was able to get out of bed and walk! His WBC count improved and he was transferred out of the ICU, in a much more stable condition.

Bruce has a long road ahead and they are praying that the Car T nightmare worked.

Only time and new scans will tell, so in the meantime, they need their support system more than ever.

With medical bills mounting after a month long hospitalization, doctors appoitments, medications, daily parking and driving, and everything in between--they could really use our love, prayers and financial support.

Please consider donating to help out the Cherelstein's in this very tough time in their lives!

Thank you so much on behalf of Bruce and Karen!