Matthew "Hunter" McClure

Matthew McClure (Hunter) is a little boy who just turned 9 in January of 2023. In 2022, he finished the 2nd grade and shortly after it was noticed that his left eye started going inward towards his nose. An eye appointment was made on June 29, 2022, where he was seen by two ophthalmologists. The second one called his pediatrician and sent him to the emergency room for emergency testing. A CT scan revealed that he had a brain tumor called Medulloblastoma and he was transported to Jacksonville, Florida with family for treatment.

On July 1, 2022, he had an 8-hour procedure (craniotomy) where they removed the tumor in full. This type of brain tumor was curable and had not spread to his spine so with treatment, he had a strong chance of overcoming the prognosis. He came home after being in the PICU for 3 weeks. He spent a few weeks at home before returning for radiation that lasted for 1 month. He completed his third round of chemo on December 28th-30th, 2022. He had a feeding tube put back in on December 31, 2022, after he kept dropping weight due to not eating enough. He was discharged to go home on the evening of the 31st.

Once home, he started having seizures that he has never had before. He was rushed to the emergency room with the fire team and paramedics meeting halfway to take over. He had a total of 4 that night. He was transported to Atlanta, Ga (where he was initially being transferred to so he would be closer to family) and they conducted an MRI which showed his tumor relapsed and now he had multiple. It became known as Leptomeningeal Spread or LM. The lifetime prognosis is short-lived as these tumors are non-curable and non-operable. Hunter has had multiple procedures done since June of 2022, multiple hospitalizations, multiple blood transfusions with platelets, and multiple severe nose bleeds.

His mother was working through college before all of this happened and finished her AAS in April of 2022. She started her BS in September of 2022 and finished 1 semester before having to put it on hold due to all of the traveling and medical attention. She was unable to obtain a job due to everything going on. His father is a truck driver with T-Brothers and has missed a lot of work since this started. Recently, his father came home for the holidays on December 21, 2022, and has not returned to work yet due to Hunter having seizures and finding out that his tumor relapsed.

The family wishes to put him through a different kind of treatment called immunotherapy where he would receive chemotherapy in pill form. While this is not guaranteed to work, the family hopes it will prolong his life even by just a little bit. Hunter is a very happy child who always thinks about others and never meets a stranger. To everyone else, he may sadly be another child who got cancer, but to his family and people who know him, he is a brother to 4 siblings, a classmate, a son, a grandson, and a cousin.

The family's main goal at this time is to keep Hunter happy, comfortable, and surrounded by family and friends who love him for as long as possible. We ask for any help by donating money, prayers or anything you can think of….. We would be forever grateful.