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HomeNewsFundraising Campaign Set Up For Family Of Lindsay Boy With Extremely Rare,...

Fundraising Campaign Set Up For Family Of Lindsay Boy With Extremely Rare, Life Threatening Cancer

KAWARTHA LAKES-Xander Townsend is quite literally in the fight of his life and his family needs our support.

Xander has a rare condition called Clear Cell Meningioma of the Quadra Equada. At just four years old Xander was the first child in Canada to be diagnosed with a brain tumour growing in his fluid sac at the bottom of his spine according to his dad Derek.

He underwent two surgeries that were unsuccessful and left him partially paralyzed. He was sent to Florida for Proton Radiation in 2013 and that put the tumour into remission for eight years. Unfortunately, it woke up a month ago and is growing aggressively and at an alarming rate according to his dad. Xander went into surgery a few days ago to remove what they could of the new tumour without causing more complications for the boy who is 12 now.

“The hard part is, the Proton treatment he received in 2013 is the cause of the Cancer. We knew the risk at the time which was 2% unfortunately Xander is in that 2% bracket. He is being moved to Princess Margret. Xander is going to receive the only option they have through radiation every day Monday to Friday starting December 28th for 6 straight weeks. They can not give us a percentage on if the treatment of Radiation will stop the tumour at the least slow it down.” said Derek on a Go Fund Me campaign set up to help the family.

Derek says if the treatment is unsuccessful they have no other option other than allowing the cancer to progress and make Xander as comfortable as he can through the process of it taking over his body.

“They have never fought this type of Cancer before that is how rare it is.”

They are hoping to raise 15,000 for a wheelchair accessible van for Xander and the family of 5 and another $5000 for unexpected expenses such as transportation and hotels and food for the family to stay close to each other.  Derek is disabled and attending college while mom works part-time in a retirement home. Xander has a 16 yr old sister and a 9 yr old brother.

“I am Currently 2 hrs from my wife and son with my other 2 children as we could no longer afford to be with Xander as we used our rent for December to cover costs thus far and we haven’t even started Christmas for our children,” says Derek.

Christmas donations for the children are also welcome.

If you are able to donate to the fundraiser here is the link:https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-xander-and-his-journey?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1xSBurHVuYs48WUh6KdNcy1zK-LK-jovur76x3bJkySGXQwjc4mD4A8u8

 

 

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Pamela Vanmeer
Pamela Vanmeerhttps://www.kawartha411.ca/
Pamela VanMeer is a two time winner of the prestigious Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Award. Her investigative reports on abuse in Long Term Care Homes garnered international attention for the issue and won the Ron Laidlaw Award. She is a former reporter and anchor at CHEX News, now Global Peterborough and helped launch the New CHEX Daily, a daily half hour talk show. While at CHCH News in Hamilton she covered some of the biggest news stories of the day.

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