Aiden's fight against Cancer
Donation protected
This is Aiden, a 12 year old boy who is fighting cancer for the 3rd time in 5 years. Aiden needs to go to Philadelphia this summer for CAR-Tcell therapy, it is only done at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and he will need to be there for 6 weeks getting this treatment. We are trying to raise funds to help the family with the cost of flights, lodging, food and time off work. Any help would be appreciated!
Over the past 5 years Aiden has had 27 lumbar punctures, 9 Bone Marrow Aspirates, 890 doses of Chemotherapy, 56 continuous days of Immunotherapy , 8 treatments of Radiation to the head, 6 treatments of Total Body Radiation, 10 treatments of targeted Radiation to the chest, had a bone marrow transplant, spent 6 months away from home at Ronald McDonald House, has had 3 blood clots, countless finger pokes and blood transfusions and has spent over 280 days in the hospital. Help us give him a normal life!
This is his story
Aiden was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August 2012 at the age of 7 and started treatment on the standard risk protocol. After genetics came back a week later, Aiden had a rare form of Leukemia, IAmp21. Only 2% of Leukemia patients have this and it has a much higher risk of relapse. They moved Aiden to the High Risk protocol and changed his treatment which required longer in hospital stays. After 3 months of treatment he was still positive for cancer and they moved Aiden to the Very High Risk protocol and said he had a 50% chance of survival vs. the 90% most other leukemia patients have.The remaining treatment went pretty well considering and he completed his treatment in June of 2015.
In Jan 2016 Aiden was showing signs of relapse, leg pain, lethargy etc. but not as severe as the first time. Sick Kids said he was fine that it was doubtful it was cancer, probably just the effects of chemo and radiation. After a few weeks of continued symptoms Sick Kids was going to do an MRI on Feb 16th but at the last minute decided to do a Bone Marrow Aspirate to put my mind at ease and rule out relapse. The results were 98% of his marrow was cancer. They admitted Aiden on Feb 19th and he would not return home until Sept of that year. They told us that because Aiden took so long the first time to reach remission that it would be a challenge to achieve remission this time for a bone marrow and said Aiden has less than 30% chance of surviving. Over the next 3 months Aiden did not respond to the chemo as they thought but by chance a test drug called Blinatumomab came available. They put him on that and it worked. It got him into remission so he would be able to get a bone marrow transplant. On July 22nd 2016 Aiden had a bone marrow transplant. For 6 weeks he had a horrible time, he was so sick, he had a fungal infection in his lungs as well as 3 viruses all in his lungs. He was very slow to engraft but it finally happened and Aiden was able to come home in September 2016. He returned to school just this past January however on April 11 2017 during a routine CT scan to monitor his fungal infection in his lungs they found abnormal bone structure in his rib. After a biopsy on Apr 17th is was discovered to be Leukemia. It presented as a mass which is extremely unusal and only happens in less than 1% of multiple relapse patients. It was determined that his only option was to go on an experimental Tcell therapy treatment but it is only done in Philadelphia. Aiden will do Radiation until he can get his Tcells genetically altered to fight the leukemia. While doing the CT scan for the radiation they found a second mass in his lung which was causing Pleural Effusion (fluid in the lungs). Aiden is currently getting Radiation and hopes to be in Philadelphia in a couple months.
Over the past 5 years Aiden has had 27 lumbar punctures, 9 Bone Marrow Aspirates, 890 doses of Chemotherapy, 56 continuous days of Immunotherapy , 8 treatments of Radiation to the head, 6 treatments of Total Body Radiation, 10 treatments of targeted Radiation to the chest, had a bone marrow transplant, spent 6 months away from home at Ronald McDonald House, has had 3 blood clots, countless finger pokes and blood transfusions and has spent over 280 days in the hospital. Help us give him a normal life!
This is his story
Aiden was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August 2012 at the age of 7 and started treatment on the standard risk protocol. After genetics came back a week later, Aiden had a rare form of Leukemia, IAmp21. Only 2% of Leukemia patients have this and it has a much higher risk of relapse. They moved Aiden to the High Risk protocol and changed his treatment which required longer in hospital stays. After 3 months of treatment he was still positive for cancer and they moved Aiden to the Very High Risk protocol and said he had a 50% chance of survival vs. the 90% most other leukemia patients have.The remaining treatment went pretty well considering and he completed his treatment in June of 2015.
In Jan 2016 Aiden was showing signs of relapse, leg pain, lethargy etc. but not as severe as the first time. Sick Kids said he was fine that it was doubtful it was cancer, probably just the effects of chemo and radiation. After a few weeks of continued symptoms Sick Kids was going to do an MRI on Feb 16th but at the last minute decided to do a Bone Marrow Aspirate to put my mind at ease and rule out relapse. The results were 98% of his marrow was cancer. They admitted Aiden on Feb 19th and he would not return home until Sept of that year. They told us that because Aiden took so long the first time to reach remission that it would be a challenge to achieve remission this time for a bone marrow and said Aiden has less than 30% chance of surviving. Over the next 3 months Aiden did not respond to the chemo as they thought but by chance a test drug called Blinatumomab came available. They put him on that and it worked. It got him into remission so he would be able to get a bone marrow transplant. On July 22nd 2016 Aiden had a bone marrow transplant. For 6 weeks he had a horrible time, he was so sick, he had a fungal infection in his lungs as well as 3 viruses all in his lungs. He was very slow to engraft but it finally happened and Aiden was able to come home in September 2016. He returned to school just this past January however on April 11 2017 during a routine CT scan to monitor his fungal infection in his lungs they found abnormal bone structure in his rib. After a biopsy on Apr 17th is was discovered to be Leukemia. It presented as a mass which is extremely unusal and only happens in less than 1% of multiple relapse patients. It was determined that his only option was to go on an experimental Tcell therapy treatment but it is only done in Philadelphia. Aiden will do Radiation until he can get his Tcells genetically altered to fight the leukemia. While doing the CT scan for the radiation they found a second mass in his lung which was causing Pleural Effusion (fluid in the lungs). Aiden is currently getting Radiation and hopes to be in Philadelphia in a couple months.
Organizer
Colleen Stinson-Mitchell
Organizer
Oshawa, ON
