Help James Fight Neurofibromatosis
Hello,
My name is Janie and I have a beautiful son named James Stallworth Jr. He has neurofibromatosis, an incurable disease, which has resulted in a tumor on his brain.
James in his Sunday best.
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To tell you a little more about neurofibromatosis, I have quoted information from the Mayo Clinic website.
"Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that disturbs cell growth in your nervous system, causing tumors to form on nerve tissue. These tumors may develop anywhere in your nervous system, including in your brain, spinal cord and nerves."
"The tumors are usually noncancerous (benign), but in some cases these tumors become cancerous (malignant) tumors."
James' tumor is benign but causes extreme pressure on his brain. On any given day, he suffers from debilitating headaches. People with neurofibromatosis often experience only mild symptoms. Unfortunately, my son's symptoms are anything but mild and they have gotten much worse over the last three years. 
Here's James all ready for school. He's always smiling and you'd never know he's dealing with neurofibromatosis (NF).
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"Effects of neurofibromatosis can range from hearing loss, learning impairment, and heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) complications to severe disability due to nerve compression by tumors, loss of vision and severe pain."
To further complicate our situation, James' left leg was broken in three places last year. Eight pins and two rods were placed in his leg. The neurofibromatosis has now grown tumors around the rods and cause non-stop pain.
Here's an x-ray of the rods and pins used to repair James' broken leg. NF tumors have invaded the area and are very painful.
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The Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida needs to remove the orthopedic hardware to help alleviate the pain in James' legs. After this procedure is complete, more surgery is required to deal with my son's brain tumor.
As you can imagine, we have many months of rehabilitation ahead of us. We are very fortunate to have most of James' medical bills covered. However, we did get one "prescription" that we just cannot afford.
The closest doctors specializing in James' disease are all over 2 hours away. Our local pediatrician in Fort Myers, Florida and our specialist in Miami have both strongly "prescribed" moving to Miami so that James can get the frequent care he needs.
As a single mother, raising James and his older brother I am a perfect example of living paycheck to paycheck. I simply have not been able to put aside the extra dollars needed for moving expenses.
We need at least $1,700 to get into a new apartment in Miami. Driving 300 miles round trip from Fort Myers to Miami, several times a week has taken a toll on my old 1994 clunker of a car and it needs to be repaired or replaced with a younger, less-used vehicle. Of course renting a moving truck and getting set up with new utility companies will pile on the costs.
Here are a couple of the apartments we're looking at in Miami.
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As a parent, I want to do the absolute best thing for my son. As a young man, James needs his Mom and big brother by his side as he goes through this very hard and scary process.
Here are three things that you can do to help:
1. We would be very grateful for any donation you can make.
2. Please share our story with everyone. Someone may know of a resource that we have not investigated.
3. Last, but not least prayers are always appreciated.
This is another picture of James recovering after his left leg was broken in three places last year.
James got to meet a celebrity chef through the Make-A-Wish program. You can see James' nickname "Poppy" on his certificate.
James helping his community... and always smiling!
