Austin's Cancer Fundraiser

Austin is a 19 years old young man who was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma cancer 2 weeks before moving into his college dorm as a freshman at Texas A&M University. His cancer was in the soft tissue and bones of his nose and sinus cavity, it penetrated his skull, the dura surrounding his brain and invaded the olfactory nerves in the frontal lobe of his brain. Austin’s plans changed and he was not able to go to college this year. Instead he has undergone treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. Austin went through 6 rounds of chemotherapy, which totaled 39 bags of chemo drugs. He endured a 9 hour surgery where they removed a kiwi sized tumor, removed his septum, removed his end wall eye bone, repaired the eroded skull bone, repaired the damage to the dura, and removed all of the left olfactory nerve and a portion of the right olfactory nerve from his brain. After recovering from surgery Austin embarked on another 8 rounds of chemo, which has totaled 50 more bags of chemo drugs. While going through these chemo treatments he also had to get 25 radiation treatments to the face. The chemotherapy intensified the effects of the radiation and was torture on Austin’s body. This form of cancer that Austin has, has a very high recurrence rate. His doctors are being very aggressive with his treatment so that his cancer does not return, as there is nothing more they can remove that would not be devastating for Austin. Austin is still in treatment and continuing to receive his chemotherapy.

We are doing this t-shirt fundraiser for a couple of reasons. First, we want to give glory to God for continuing to get us through this battle against cancer. We want to thank you our loyal prayer warriors who continue to walk this journey with us and we want to bring more awareness to childhood cancer.

This fundraiser is for two reasons: to help us with the enormous cost of battling cancer. Insurance helps but does not pay for everything and many things are just not covered. There are so many unexpected expenses when fighting a life threatening illness.

Second: Cancer and what you have to go through to battle this evil disease steals so much from you. It has been the hardest year of our lives watching Austin so sick and having to suffer so much. Austin missed so many college scholarships and the Make a Wish Foundation age deadline by 40 days. Because he is suffering his battle with cancer at the age of 19 instead of under the age of 18. It is virtually impossible to find many organizations that help families with kids fighting cancer unless they are under 18 years old. Any child who battles ths horrible dsease deservs to have thir wishe granted. For Austin his wish is to go to Hawaii when he is done with treatment. He had his dream of going to college slip out from under him last year when he was diagnosed. He won’t let himself get excited about college yet because he is afraid to have that dream destroyed again. However, to see his face light up when he talks about going to Hawaii is incredible. He is excited and so happy to be planning where he wants to go and what he wants to do. It is taking his mind off how difficult these final treatments are on his body. To see him this excited about something after all this time makes my heart so full of joy. Please help us grant Austin’s wish to go to Hawaii after he is cleared by his doctor. To help us with the growing medical bills and to be able to grant Austin’s wish to go to Hawaii please buy a t-shirt today and possibly make a donation as well.

We would love for you to send us pictures of your family or groups wearing these shirts in support of Austin and the strength and courage he has shown battling this disease. He has kept a smile on his face and continued to praise God for getting him through each day. What an awesome inspiration he has been to all of us. To send us pictures or if you would like our personal address to send your donation directly to us please email us at: kjarmstrong@comcast.net