Help Me Take My Son Across the Country to Find the Stem Cell Team Who Will Save His Life

My son is only 24 years old, barely. He is gentle, brilliant, observant, a kid whose heart is too big for the body cancer keeps trying to destroy.

At 22 years old, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. He has survived chemotherapy. He has survived bile duct surgeries and complications that would flatten grown men twice his age. He has survived a failed CAR-T treatment. This is one of the most challenging medical battles a human body can endure. 

He is still here,  fighting, hoping, wanting to live. Now we are here! This is the one place no mother wants to stand, where the program we are currently in cannot take him any further. Their transplant window doesn't fit him. Their criteria locked out his complications.

We were suggested to find other programs. At home, Illinois does not cater in the ways that these other programs do across the country. These programs are known for accepting harder cases, younger adults, and people who have survived complications regarding CAR-T and its unique GI challenges.

They all want to see him. They all want their chance to reevaluate such a young man. They are willing to look again.

This is why I am asking for help.

WHY WE HAVE TO TRAVEL THE COUNTRY

Every transplant center has different rules, from different BMI limits to philosophies on risks vs diseases. We have found that they all have unique thresholds for young adults who deserve a chance at life. Different BMI limits, different philosophies on risk, different thresholds for young adults who deserve another chance.

Where one program says,
“We can’t proceed,”
another says,
“Let us evaluate him ourselves.”

These hospitals include:

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

MD Anderson (Houston, TX)

City of Hope (Duarte, CA)

Fred Hutch (Seattle, WA)

This isn’t clinic hopping although it does look that way. These are the TOP oncology programs and centers for his best chance. This is a strategic medical search for the ONE transplant team who can say YES to him.

Waiting is the enemy, Cancer does not wait, his last program wasted valuable time for him to be typed for the stem cells. His pembrolizumab (immunotherapy) is only a bridge, it cannot hold forever. On his favor is youth and resilience but we were told only if we move now.

This tour of stem cell centers must be seen now. 

I do need help to fund it. Anything will help. 

THE ESTIMATED COST TO GET MY SON TO HOPE

We are traveling 8,241 miles across the United States, in our 2021 Dodge Caravan, with no assistance for:

Gas

Lodging

Food

Parking

Medical travel nights

Required in-between rest days

None of the hospitals have confirmed financial aid or travel support.
Some have programs, but none have approved us.
So the full burden falls on us.

Here are the real numbers:

Gas: $1,330

Hotels: $4,500 (social worker is involved but only on treatment days)

Food for 3 people: $3,000

Total: $8,830

This is the guesstimate it will cost to get him to every appointment and second opinion that could save his life.

WHAT THIS MEANS AS HIS MOTHER

I am not asking for comfort. I am not asking for extras. This is a medical journey not a sightseeing vacation. I am not asking for anything beyond what it takes to get my son in front of the people who might save him.

This is a mother’s plea:

Help me take my son to the hospitals that might give him a future.

Help me cover the gas it takes to cross the country.
Help me cover the food we need to stay nourished while we fight.
Help me cover the hotel beds where we’ll try to sleep between hospitals.
Help me show up for my child in the one way I still can — by getting him to the doctors who may say “We can help.”

THE POET DESERVES A CHANCE

He deserves to grow old. He deserves to be seen by every transplant team who might have a path towards a yes. He deserves the chance CAR-T didn’t give him. 

I am his mother and I don't know how to stop advocating for him. I will not stop fighting for him.

I am asking you from my heart, from my knees, from the place inside me that will never stop trying to save my child to consider my place.

Please help us fund this journey.
Please help me get him to the right stem cell team.
Please help us keep hope alive.

Every dollar will be used towards gas, food, or shelter on the road to saving him.

Thank you for helping me fight for my son. Thank you from our family. 

Updates shall be given as we can.