Angel & JT Tompkins' Ongoing Cancer Battle
Donation protected
If you have ever been to the Mill Park Summer Concert Series, then you have a pretty good idea of what the Tompkins family is all about. You will have found JT buzzing about, talking to every audience member, performer, food truck vendor, and sound technician, making sure that everything is in place and everyone is having a good time. You will have seen Angel selling her homemade lemonade to support the local library, corralling a flock of children to help at the stand, organizing games, and passing out glowsticks. JT and Angel bring people together, celebrate community, and provide a space for good things to happen. They do all this in spite of and around a long history of health and financial strife.
Angel has been battling cancer and a myriad of related complications for the better part of twenty years. In 2000, when Angel’s mother was diagnosed with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2a (MEN2A), Angel and her brothers were tested for the genetic mutation that triggered the illness. All three of the siblings have it. Their mother passed away in 2009. Gratefully, JT and Angel’s son, Henry, is not a carrier.
Since her diagnosis, Angel has been treated in Auburn, Syracuse, Buffalo, and eventually Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. She has endured multiple surgeries and countless ER visits for complications surrounding the disease and the surgeries. To date, she’s had her thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal glands, gall bladder and multiple lymph nodes removed as well as surgery on her liver to embolize the cancer. This past November, while recovering from her 13th operation in Florida, Angel was in an accident that shattered her T12 and L1 vertebrae, necessitating a 14th surgery to insert 6-inch rods into her spine.
Needless to say, all of this has caused extensive emotional and financial stress on the family. Well before this most recent setback, due to the pain, exhaustion, and bone density loss from the disease and requisite medications, Angel was unable to continue working and had to leave her job at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. JT’s job at Staples is the family’s sole financial support currently, and the mounting medical bills, as well as future needs such as physical therapy, are proving impossible to afford in the current situation.
JT and Angel are incredibly grateful for the love, support, time, and energy that so many have so graciously given through all of this. If it is possible for you to give some financial support to help them get back on their feet and to tackle the mountain of medical expenses, it would be an incredible blessing to them.
Let's rally around this family.
Angel has been battling cancer and a myriad of related complications for the better part of twenty years. In 2000, when Angel’s mother was diagnosed with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2a (MEN2A), Angel and her brothers were tested for the genetic mutation that triggered the illness. All three of the siblings have it. Their mother passed away in 2009. Gratefully, JT and Angel’s son, Henry, is not a carrier.
Since her diagnosis, Angel has been treated in Auburn, Syracuse, Buffalo, and eventually Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. She has endured multiple surgeries and countless ER visits for complications surrounding the disease and the surgeries. To date, she’s had her thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal glands, gall bladder and multiple lymph nodes removed as well as surgery on her liver to embolize the cancer. This past November, while recovering from her 13th operation in Florida, Angel was in an accident that shattered her T12 and L1 vertebrae, necessitating a 14th surgery to insert 6-inch rods into her spine.
Needless to say, all of this has caused extensive emotional and financial stress on the family. Well before this most recent setback, due to the pain, exhaustion, and bone density loss from the disease and requisite medications, Angel was unable to continue working and had to leave her job at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. JT’s job at Staples is the family’s sole financial support currently, and the mounting medical bills, as well as future needs such as physical therapy, are proving impossible to afford in the current situation.
JT and Angel are incredibly grateful for the love, support, time, and energy that so many have so graciously given through all of this. If it is possible for you to give some financial support to help them get back on their feet and to tackle the mountain of medical expenses, it would be an incredible blessing to them.
Let's rally around this family.
Organizer and beneficiary
Angela Levy
Organizer
Ithaca, NY
Joseph Tompkins
Beneficiary