Nick & Caroline Leukemia Relief Fund

As many of you already know, our dear friend Nicholas McDonald was diagnosed with leukemia in November and is currently undergoing cancer treatment. Many friends have asked us how they can support Nick and Caroline throughout this difficult season, and we’d like to ask for your help in doing just that.

Nick and Caroline’s friends set up this GoFundMe to help cover the costs associated with their treatment and to alleviate some of the potential stress surrounding future expenses. There are some known medical costs coming due in the immediate future (about $8,000) for their initial treatment in the hospital as well as some indeterminate future costs we would like to prepare for.

This includes medical bills for further treatment which may continue for another 2-3 years as an outpatient. (For more information on Nick's future treatment options see the last paragraph below).

Another potential unknown cost is the loss of income if Nick needs to take unpaid leave from his job in order to rest after chemo treatment.

God willing, Nick will be well enough to continue working throughout the course of his treatment but if he needs to take some time to rest we would love to be able to help provide a financial blessing so that he can focus his energies on recovering.

We are taking this one step at a time and trying to meet the needs as they come. That said, Nick and Caroline's needs may change as we get more information about what all the treatment path entails but this is an attempt to get ahead of known and likely expenses coming due in the near future.

Many of you have already expressed your support and care for Nick and Caroline in ways that are heartening and humbling and for that we are deeply grateful. If you are able, we hope you will consider supporting them with a financial blessing. Your consideration and gifts are greatly appreciated.

*FYI Gifts to GoFundMe are not tax deductible.*

See below for Caroline's most recent update posted on 1/10/24.

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. We really enjoyed being home for the holidays.

Nicholas has had daily chemo infusions at the Hollings Center for the past 2 weeks. Most recently he had another spinal tap to put chemo in his spinal fluid to prevent the cancer from spreading to his spine and brain. There is a risk with each spinal tap of a spinal fluid leak, which is what happened with this one last Wednesday. We are back in the hospital as of Saturday so that Nicholas could receive a "blood patch" where they inject his own blood into the epidural space to seal the leak. Thankfully as of now Nicholas is feeling better and the patch seems to have worked.

We also received news that Nicholas is in remission! This is a huge answer to prayer. While he is in remission, his doctor said it is not a "good enough" remission for him to avoid a bone marrow transplant. He told us there is a 70% chance the cancer would return within 5 years with chemotherapy alone. Nicholas will be starting a new medication that will clear out the residual cancer in his body to prepare it for the transplant. He will wear the medicine on a belt so that it can be administered continuously over 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks, he has a 2 week break where they will determine if his body is ready for a transplant. If not, he will repeat the 6 week cycle and then start the transplant.

The transplant requires a 4 week stay at the hospital where they will infuse a donor's stem cells into his body. Nicholas' siblings each have a 25% chance of being a match and they have all graciously volunteered to be tested. If they are not, there is a donor bank that gives Nicholas an 80% chance of finding a match. Many of you have also kindly offered to get tested to be a match as well, however the doctor has said there is probably a greater chance of winning the lottery than having someone that we know be a match. There is a website called bethematch.org that will send you a test kit if you would like to see if you are a match with someone.

Overall, the transplant is more risky, but it is expected to be around 6 months of treatment, rather than the 2-3 years of chemo that could result in needing a transplant at any point anyway.

Praises:

Prayer requests:

Thank you all for following along on his journey and keeping him in your prayers!

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18