Help Tim Get Transportation to Cancer Doctors

Hi, my name is Felicia Gayle (Burton) Tucker and I am raising money for my brother, Tim Burton and his wife, Margie, to help them get a car to get to and from his cancer doctors' appointments. Tim has been battling a bone marrow cancer called Multiple Myeloma since 2012. Since he was only 45 when he was diagnosed, cancer was the last thing the doctors were looking for. It progressed so much at the time, his kidneys were shutting down and he was on dialysis for a while. At the time he was diagnosed, they gave him four months to live.

When he was first diagnosed, the bone in his leg was so weak he had to have immediate surgery to put in a rod. He also very soon after had the first of three surgeries on the bone in his arm, where they put in rods and pins. He is facing another surgery in early 2022 to replace the hardware in his arm. He has also had a back surgery to fill in his collapsed vertebrae the cancer destroyed (kyphoplasty). Since 2012 he has been on chemotherapy and must go to his cancer doctor here in Louisville at least weekly, sometimes twice a week.

Anywhere from two to four times a year, he has to drive to Little Rock, Arkansas to the cancer center at the University of Arkansas. The cancer center in Arkansas specializes in Multiple Myeloma and they manage and make all of the decisions related to his treatment. Every trip he has to make to Arkansas from Louisville takes at least two days to drive, because his doctors have told him his body cannot tolerate riding any longer than a few hours per day. That makes his trips even more expensive, because they have to stop and stay overnight in a hotel along the way. Once he gets to Arkansas, he never knows how long he will have to stay, but it is always at least a week. He has had to stay as long as six weeks. Once a month after his cancer doctor appointment in Louisville, he has to mail vials of his blood to Arkansas for them to test. When his numbers are not what they want to see, he has to get to Arkansas, sometimes with very little notice. Every time he makes the trip, his co-pays, gas, food, etc. is about $2,000.

When he first went to Arkansas, he underwent several long procedures where they harvested his own stem cells to use in his treatment. He was hooked to a big machine that took the blood and extracted the cells. Then the cells were frozen for two weeks before they did a stem-cell transplant, putting his own cells back in his body. He went through that process twice.

Tim is disabled from the cancer. His wife, Margie, takes care of him full time, and he is totally dependent on her. He can only be alone for short periods of time. Tim and Margie have a small disability income and they have struggled since 2012 with his co-payments and his very expensive chemotherapy and cancer medicines. As a small family, we have all helped in every way we can. We have felt blessed for the past nearly 10 years of Tim's ongoing fight. In 2017, we got to see Tim walk his daughter down the aisle (he permanently uses a cane), and in 2019 he met his granddaughter. Then, in 2019, Margie also had a bout with cancer.

Now Tim and Margie have fallen on even harder times, because their 2004 car broke down recently and the mechanic told them it is no longer safe to drive. He told them there is too much wrong with it to be fixed. The front end has gone completely out. Our family has rallied around and helped at every turn. Now we are asking for the generosity of others because we need to get them a vehicle to get him to his many cancer appointments. God bless and thank you.