Joe Pepe and his family

One of my childhood best friends husband, Joe Pepe and his family need our help! On July, 27th 2022, days after his oldest son Jakes HS grad party, Joe Pepe was rushed to the ER by his wife Denise and her 2 sons. He was acting different at dinner and wasn’t making any sense. He went with them reluctantly saying he was just tired, at this point he was able to walk into the car.

On the way to the ER he had his first grand mall seizure, Jake was with him in the back seat holding his head and directing his mom to pull over and told his younger brother Sean to call 911. They were minutes from the hospital.

At the ER he had his second grand mall seizure. That night they found he had multiple tumors in his brain. On August 2nd they did a biopsy on one which confirmed he has glioblastoma multiform. Intubated for nearly 10 days he had rebuild his memory, speech and mobility. He was discharged on August 19th and continued rehab at home. Once he was stable he did 6 weeks of radiation at Sloan Kettering along with chemo pills administered through NY Columbia Presbyterian. After the 6 weeks of radiation/chemo he went through 3 cycles of just chemo. He had a small seizure on January 26th and on Feb 6th the MRI showed one of the tumors wasn’t responding anymore to the chemo.

Joe just recently enrolled in a clinical trial. So far he has had 3 weekly rounds of infusions and will have a craniotomy on the one tumor that grew this coming Wednesday. And if research is going its course he will continue this trial with more infusions.

Glioblastoma (GBM), is a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor. It invades the nearby brain tissue, there is no cure. They can only try to control it and maintain it. Joe stays optimistic, he is a fighter!!

Joe and Denise have 3 children - Jake 18, Sean 15 and Brooke 11. As you can imagine, medical bills are mounting and any donation would be appreciated. Here is a pic of Joe before he started treatments…We love you Joe & Denise xoxo ~ Diane