Faith For Frankie #Frankiestrong

Frankie is a fantastic young man with a huge heart and a warm, wonderful personality. He is a loving big brother to 10 year old Cameron and 6 year old Carley. He is a successful student, dedicated friend and a Rock Star on the Arsenal field where he plays on a competitive soccer team. His passion for life and his love for those around him is always evident and even now as he faces an earth shattering diagnosis, his positive attitude and gracious spirit inspires those around him. It was just before the Christmas holiday 2016 when the Collurafici family received devastating news that their son had cancer, here's his story...

After a normal Monday (November 28, 2016), Frank (dad) and Angie (mom) took Frankie to the eye doctors for a check up because of headaches and vision problems and were told by the ophthalmologist to take him to the ER immediately for a MRI. They went right to St. Joe's where tests were done and they informed the family that Frankie had a brain tumor (MRI shown below). He was then transferred to Hopkins children's hospital PICU. After numerous tests and a surgery (December 2, 2016), doctors informed them that their remarkable 14 year old vivacious son Frankie had brain cancer. While a spinal tap later showed that the cancer had not spread to the spine, they were informed that his type of cancer, medulloblastoma, was aggressive and that Frankie would need to undergo a rigorous schedule of chemotherapy and radiation.





On December 30 he started his radiation followed by his first round of chemo on January 2, 2017. After a little over a month in Kennedy Krieger he is now home and receiving radiation and chemo 5 days a week along with out patient therapy.

So their life which was once filled with school activities, soccer games, family movie nights and fun with Frankie and his two younger siblings, now revolves around doctors & hospitals, chemotherapy, radiation, physical therapy, needles, tests, iv ports, nausea, stress, strain, tears, emotional overload, sleepless nights, exhaustion and financial burdens.

This fund has been set up for my nephew by our family with permission from his parents The goal of the fund is to help provide financial relief from the medical expenses which are only starting to surface. We hope that through this fund we can take away financial stress so that they may concentrate on Frankie and their other children during this extremely difficult time.

We hope that you will find it in your heart to donate to Frankie’s Medical Fund. Every dollar counts and we appreciate your thoughtfulness, compassion and prayers for this young man and his parents as they continue to battle this devil of a disease.



Frankie is # 19


Homecoming


The night before his surgery