Help Antonio Fight Rare Paraganglioma Cancer

Hello,

My name is Jose. I’m an active duty soldier with 16 years of service and three combat deployments to Afghanistan. 

I have created this GoFundMe in order to help the only living member of my direct family, my brother Antonio. Our mom and dad passed away from cancer when we were kids and he is all I have left. Unfortunately this is Antonio’s second battle with cancer. The difference is that now, he doesn't have medical insurance and the tumors have metastasized to more areas of his body.

Antonio has been diagnosed with Paraganglioma Cancer in the spine, pelvis, and possibly his lungs. Thankfully he was granted an emergency visa in order to come to the US to get treated. 

So far he has undergone an emergency 6 hour long surgery at M.D Anderson in which they removed most of the tumor from his lower spine. If it had been left untreated, could have made him lose mobility of his lower body.

He is currently recovering from surgery and has been proposed a treatment plan called Azedra by the Endocrinology department which states has a 70-80% chance of defeating this cancer. This treatment will cost $300,000.00. Unfortunately we don't have that kind of money and have found a another option in a different cancer treatment facility. The treatment involves 10 rounds of targeted radiation to one of the tumors that is of most concern. This treatment will cost $16,500 and is a much more achievable goal than what M.D. Anderson was proposing.

Family and friends have gathered all the funds we could so far to put towards the first surgery. 

Please, I’m asking you to share this with as many people as you can. I know that together we can do this and hopefully we will be able to fund the medical bill for this necessary surgery.

Thank you,

Jose