Comfort and Care for Charlie Bates

Charlie is an amazing and smart high school senior who loves his family, science (especially astronomy!) and doing math just for fun.

And he is fighting stage 4 cancer.

Fibrolamellar is a brutal cancer. It is a rare cancer that strikes kids in their late teens and those in early adulthood. It starts in otherwise healthy livers and, as it has in Charlie’s case, often spreads undetected to surrounding organs like the stomach and lungs, at which point it is often past best treatment practices and past a good outcome.

Cancer hit Charlie out of left field just this spring. He was going about his studies as an honor student in the Princeton Astronomy Club, living his best teenage life, when the wind was taken out of his sails. Starting with seemingly benign GI issues, his symptoms continued to get worse, making it hard to eat. Doctors looked to all the common reasons for a cause, but eventually, the family was given the diagnosis every family dreads. It was the C word. Cancer. Charlie and his family were devastated.

Too late for surgery to be an option, Charlie agreed to undergo grueling chemo as a Hail Mary option. Unfortunately, this did not deter the growth of the cancer. But Charlie doesn’t give up easily. He continues to fight, meeting each treatment and set back head on. And as his dad would say, “taking it like a champ.”

Charlie’s father, Dave, is a devoted single dad who is regularly missing work to be by Charlie’s side. On top of this, are medical bills and the hidden, extra costs of caring for a sick child. Things like bridge tolls, gas, eating away from home, buying the little things that bring comfort to your child. And there are the bigger things you’ll try to make happen to bring any amount of joy to your kid.

Charlie is an honor student and should be thinking about college scholarships, senior trips, prom and looking forward to the new season of Loki, but instead he is starting to make a different kind of wish list. A precocious kid, he has always dreamed of seeing the northern lights. A dream he and his father still hope to make a reality.

Please help Dave and Charlie with whatever gift you can, so their focus and energy can be in the one place it needs to be right now –

on Charlie and whatever brings him comfort. Help Dave be by his side as Charlie continues to fight. Help Dave and Charlie take as many trips and do as many fun things as they can, while Charlie can. Help Charlie see the northern lights.

Charlie and Dave have ties to Atco, NJ, where they live and ties to Collingswood, NJ, where Dave Bates currently works full time and Charlie Bates has worked part time.