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#PipaStrong - Boston Here We Come

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For those of you who know him, our dad Tony--Pipa as his grandkids call him--is the kind of person that would drop anything to help family, a friend or even a stranger. He’s the guy that will make small talk on the toll booth to get a smile out of you when you’re having a bad day, and he’s the one who packs extra breakfasts because he knows not every kid at the high school he works at had breakfast at home.

You may also know Dad has been battling cancer on-again, off-again since his first diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2001. He beat cancer then, and beat it again in 2006-07 when the cancer came back and he had a stem cell transplant in Boston using his own stem cells.

However, last year, doctors diagnosed Dad with Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a condition of his bone marrow which they believe occurred because of all the chemotherapy and radiation he received over the years. Left untreated, there is a significant chance that this develops into leukemia.

In the past year, Dad has been getting blood transfusions about twice a month. He has been spiking fevers and had several trips to the Emergency Room to deal with the symptoms of this disease. He has been getting varying degrees of treatment since September.  The doctors aren’t seeing the results they want so they recommend another stem cell transplant, and on May 10, he heads to Boston.

While we are confident and hopeful this will be a success, Dad has a tough journey ahead of him, as does our Mom. He will be out in Boston for close to a month for the  treatment. This transplant has a risk of rejection since he is receiving a donor’s marrow which means his immune system will be highly compromised for a long time.

As a result, he will be unable to work for as long as year, avoid large contained crowds, public places and eating food not specifically prepared for him. For that reason, we respectfully ask that you do not send any food.

We have been overwhelmed by the kindness, outpouring of concern, and eagerness to help and we have been thinking of ways people can help, here are some:

Please keep our parents in your thoughts and prayers. They can use all the support they can get.

Please feel free to send our parents a card or a note.  Please PM any of us and we can send you their home address if you don’t have it already.

#PipaStrongGoFundMe page. Donations would be used to help defray costs from lost wages, COBRA’ing health insurance, travel to Boston for checkups, and other unforeseen expenses.

Please share Dad’s story. We want to spread the word as much as possible, so if you could share Dad’s story on your social media platforms, we would be very grateful.

Thank you again for your love and support. It has meant a lot to us as we face this next test. We look forward to updating you with Dad’s great progress  

With love,
The Tony Carrk kids and grandkids
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Donations 

  • Kathy Deyo
    • $50 
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Tony Carrk
Organizer
Arlington, VA
Ann Carrk
Beneficiary

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