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Christopher Phillips Leukemia Fund

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
Spoke with Chris and he's going for round 3 of chemo shortly. ...just because you've donated doesn't mean you can't do again.. :) I continue to Mae products for nm coworkers and sell to them. .also in donate straight to his PayPal so no middleman and send as family...so no fees
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I've purchased peppers from him before.  Is his paypal the same?  When I donated in Nov in his fund, I picked an option to pay the fee's for my donation and it came out to $14. 
Better Chris have that extra money.
 
roper2008 said:
 
 
I've purchased peppers from him before.  Is his paypal the same?  When I donated in Nov in his fund, I picked an option to pay the fee's for my donation and it came out to $14. 
Better Chris have that extra money.
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It should be the same, yes. If you are unsure PM me.
 
The fees are the ones for using a credit or debit card that are paid on every transaction, usually by the person or business that accepts the card. In this case there is no accepting business, so the donator pays the fees incurred either by having a %-age taken out at source, or by choosing the "pay the fees" option and paying more, while keeping the donation what you`d like it to be. Zero is taken by the web site or by any middleman other than the credit card/bank.
 
The other fees taken are those you pay when you use PayPal, the Donationto site does not levy any fees at all. If you pay direct through PayPal the person who receives the money pays the fees. If you send as "money to a friend" using PayPal, you can avoid the fees and this is what Denniz is doing. At some point I have to think that PayPal will figure this out in Chris` case. 
 
An update on Chris.
 
He started round 2 chemotherapy last Friday and on Sunday started taking a new drug known as a Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI), in this case Dasatinib. This is because Chris' Leukemia is driven by a chromosomal translocation. A chunk of chromosome 22 accidentally got put on chromosome 9 and vice versa. It`s called being Philadelphia Chromosome positive and creates a new gene that drives the Leukemia cells to grow with no control, known as BCR-ABL. The gene product, Bcr-Abl, is an enzyme known as a Tyrosine Kinase, hence the use of a TKI. 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_chromosome
 
Just a quick note about Chris. He`s being guided towards a possible bone marrow transplant in the next month or two.
 
I`d just like to say that everyone has been incredible with donations and support, but that he still needs us. A transplant runs roughly half a million dollars and while Chris will not have to pay that, he will incur significant expenses. Please, if you can afford just a few dollars, consider donating to Chris` fundraiser or direct to his PayPal account. It doesn`t have to be much. 
 
Thank you everyone, I`m very proud of this community.
 
Another quick update on Chris and his treatment. He finished some chemo last week, but had to be re-admitted to Hospital 3 days ago with a fever of 103°, so is on IV antibiotics. He also has severe lack of red blood cells, platelets and neutrophils (a type of white blood cell that acutely fights infections), so is getting lots of blood transfusions, red cells and platelets. 
The next step is to check whether he has achieved remission from the leukaemia and prepare for a bone marrow transplant. There are 2 matches in the bone marrow database, so they are being contacted by the transplant team at The Karmanos Institute. 
 
Nigel, tried to do this privately but your mail box is full.  Probably a futile gesture cause it sounds like his type is rare, but if you want me to give it a try point me in the way of what ever the testing procedure is.  Its not a big thing.  Been in and out of hospitals so much that some of the nursing staff keep in touch.  I kind of miss them.
 
ajdrew said:
Nigel, tried to do this privately but your mail box is full.  Probably a futile gesture cause it sounds like his type is rare, but if you want me to give it a try point me in the way of what ever the testing procedure is.  Its not a big thing.  Been in and out of hospitals so much that some of the nursing staff keep in touch.  I kind of miss them.
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Thanks AJ, that`s such a lovely selfless thing! Here is the web site for the National Bone Marrow Donation organisation. You may not help Chris, but you may help someone else. Just have a look and decide if it`s good for you. If it isn`t, don`t worry. The thought itself is special!
 
https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/donation-process/donating-bone-marrow/
 
I've donated marrow and stem cells a few times in the past.

There's a bit of procedure beforehand and you feel like crap for awhile afterwards.

Small price to pay for possibly saving a life.

That feeling far outweighs the physical feelings after donating.

Hopefully this guy finds a match.
 
EvanWilliams1988 said:
I've donated marrow and stem cells a few times in the past.

There's a bit of procedure beforehand and you feel like crap for awhile afterwards.

Small price to pay for possibly saving a life.

That feeling far outweighs the physical feelings after donating.

Hopefully this guy finds a match.
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Dude, you `effin rock!!!
 
If folk are even pondering the idea, please visit the site Nigel provided.  I did, learned a great deal.  It is NOT even an in patient procedure.  It is essentially giving blood.  First you get a week of shots that somehow gets your blood ready.  Then on or two visits, they draw blood, filter out what they want and put back what they dont want. 
 
Quick update - - Chris went in to Hospital a week ago to start the pre-transplant chemotherapy and radiation. They`ve been using some pretty heavy duty drugs and yesterday morning he also had 2 hours of radiation treatment. 
 
Last night he was given the infusion of bone marrow cells collected from the donor, or allo-graft, as it`s known. I haven`t been in touch with him since, but Chris`s Wife told me he is not feeling well and is extremely tired, which is only to be expected.
 
I`ll update more as and when I know anything. 
 
I realize I have not chimed in much as things have been kind of crazy over the last several months and Nigel has been the one giving updates most of the time.  I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone so much for all your support.  I just got out of the hospital after being in 23 days related to my bone marrow transplant.  It was an extremely tough process and the chemo / radiation were the hardest I've had by far.  I was unable to keep any food down for 5-7 days.  I just got home yesterday.  :)   I have a long road ahead of me with many follow-up visits to my doctor, IV magnesium administration at home and more, but I'm sincerely thankful I walked out of the hospital on my own two feet!  There are many risks still moving forward such as the possibility of graft vs. host disease and more.  It is way too early to know if the transplant will be successful in putting the Leukemia into remission fully, but I sure am hoping it will.  I took my shot at this as there was one match on the Be the Match bone marrow registry out of 22,000,000 people!!  Sometimes you gotta take your best shot and hope it works out because of fate.  I'm just thankful my donor still wanted to do the process and hope someday I can thank him personally for being so generous to do something like this. 
 
The support in the pepper community has been overwhelming since November.  I wanted to let you all know how much it means to me.  Thanks again!!!
 
Chris
 
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