Help us give Joe Murphy a reason to smile again!

We are organizing this GoFundMe to support Joe Murphy in his now very long battle against Leukemia. The Murphy family has been hit time and time again with this devastating diagnosis for Joe and they rise every time to help him keep fighting.

Joe has done everything right in order to fulfill his American dream. He has worked hard since he was 15 starting as a contractor’s assistant. He completed high school and college while improving his skills as a builder and carpenter and has been living frugally, trying to save money in order to buy a home. In 2016, at the age of 25, he was diagnosed with t-cell ALL, an aggressive form of leukemia. After the trials of grueling treatment, including multi week hospital stays, many rounds of chemo, loss of body mass, loss of hair, loss of income, and depleting his savings - we hoped he had it beat. Unfortunately, this was not the case because a few years after he had a relapse. Much, much more treatment to endure, was unable to work, and had to rely on his family and the few savings he was able to replenish. This relapse would require a bone marrow transplant.

Eventually a match was found and the process began. The side effects were difficult to bear. At one point he had vomited 28 out of 32 days and as a result, he now needs extensive dental work which will easily cost 25K over what insurance will cover. Once again, he worked really hard to rebuild his body so he could return to work, rebuild his savings and have something of a social life. Then of course, COVID hit. We all know how difficult that was, especially socially. Unfortunately, it also affected the business world and he joined the many who were temporarily laid off. One more time his savings were halted.

Fast forward to 2022. Joe was 4 years post transplant, began a new job, regained some social life and was able to begin dating again. His efforts were starting to pay off… Sadly, last November he found himself in the hospital yet again with leukemia. It took several long days to develop a treatment because the doctors were confused by this new and different type of leukemia. They were able to finally determine that he got it from his bone marrow donor who had a genetic mutation causing increased likelihood of developing T-cell AML. In July of this year, he was fortunate enough to have another bone marrow transplant that came with its own set of struggles. Until recently he was doing very well, all things considered, but now has

been experiencing complications that are taking a toll on his very tired body. Still, we are hopeful that this current hospital stay will help him to overcome them.

Some days he can’t help but to feel out of luck. He considers his struggles to be like building sand castles. He works so hard to build a good life but inevitably the tide comes in and washes it away; although it currently seems that he’s caught tumbling in the crashing waves.

It is grueling for his family, and everyone that knows them, to witness this good young man have to go through so much agony and setbacks. While there is no way that we can help Joe medically, we are humbly asking for your help to make something positive happen to him!

His family will always be grateful to friends that have been so generous already, and have asked for nothing more than continued prayers and good wishes.

If you can help us share this GoFundMe on your social media that will be very much appreciated as well. Believe when I tell you… if someone deserves it, that’s Joe Murphy.

Thanks in advance!

Joe has tried so hard to keep a positive attitude... even tried to have some fun while losing his hair due to treatment.