Afu Fiefia’s battle with cancer #united4afu
Hi! My name is Loni, and after some persuading, my best friend Celeste agreed to let me start a gofundme on behalf of their sweet family who is enduring one of the hardest trials I can imagine as a parent, which is going through the journey of stage 4 cancer affecting their 14 year old son, Afu. I have inserted Si’i & Celeste’s words below of what they are going through with Afu. They will keep us posted throughout this journey on his progress. This is just the beginning of a very long road ahead that will come with many financial burdens that, with our efforts, we can hopefully help alleviate. We want this part to be the least of their worries! Thank you for helping out the Fiefia family, chances are they’ve touched your life at one point in time or another and here is our chance to love and support them! One more quick side note, if you know Celeste, you know that her career choice as a hairdresser (the best around) may not come with the luxury of taking paid time off and so I really don’t want her worrying about the bills when she will need some time off to be with Afu as he goes through chemotherapy. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers on behalf of Afu and the Fiefia family! ❤️
This next part are words from Si’i (David/Tevita) & Celeste Fiefia:
Our family has been through an emotional battle over the past few weeks:
Afu was complaining about sporadic calf pain over the last several weeks, so before we took our family trip to Greece we had him see a doctor that ordered x-rays and MRI. Results didn’t look good from the MRI and suspected a growth of some sort/tumor in his leg. After we got home, he had a biopsy of the tumor in his calf and a full body PET/CT scan to see if there has been spread of any sort. Sitting in the waiting room outside while the biopsy was being performed, about an hour into surgery the doctor and pathologist had confirmed that indeed our son Afu has cancer. The type of cancer is classified as very aggressive and part of the Sarcoma family. The PET/CT scan has also revealed there has been spread to his lungs, pelvis, lymph nodes in his leg and some spots in his abdomen. He is scheduled this week for a heart ultrasound in preparation to begin chemotherapy. We don’t know what the future holds and only time will tell how and if his body along with chemo will react given the aggressiveness nature of this type of cancer.
Finding out this news has hit him hard knowing he should be practicing and playing his freshman year at Highland Highschool here in Pocatello. He/we now have shifted our focus to helping him in a fight for his life! We are truly grateful for those that have heard the news and have reached out in prayer, love and support!
The only way we have got to this point has been through constant prayer, Family and Friends support and most importantly our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It also has been through our understanding of the Plan of Salvation that families can and will be sealed for All Time and Eternity!
This process has been brutal and has taken a toll individually and as a family and this is just the beginning. It has even been difficult to write this message as it seems so surreal that this is happening to our strongest, healthiest and toughest child!
We are working closely with the oncology team at Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital in SLC, UT were he will be receiving treatment. Although we are still in the process of finalizing the path Afu and our family will be taking, we felt it was necessary to give an official update on what’s happening with Afu and our family.
WE LOVE YOU ALL! ❤️