Plea for help from HN community | Hacker News Reader

Plea for help from HN community

11 pointsVaedaStrike9 comments

I've gotten so much out of coming to HN every day. My entire nascent programming career and capacity to sustain my family is among the greater things directly tied to life decisions that were strongly influenced by this.

For this reason, and not to spam or cause clutter, I'm asking for help. My niece of 20 months has brain cancer. Her parents believe her best chance is a treatment they recently got FDA approval to try. The only problem is that simply lack money to even start the first round of treatment. Any help, either directly or indirectly provided, in any means, will help--

http://www.gofundme.com/7djqbw

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If anyone has any questions about legitimacy please feel free to contact me.

about.me/ethanpearson supercriticalfluid is my email address at gmail

Does http://watsi.org operate wherever you are?

Now that you mention watsi I'm feeling foolish for not have made the connection (with all my time on HN) and looked into it (I think I'd just always related it more to impoverished people outside the US rather than extreme cases within the US). I will look into it and pass this along to my sister and her husband. Likely better than the high rates taken from gofundme.

BTW here's an article in the local press that came out when they initially petitioned the FDA for the treatment.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1009&sid=29959572

Are "antineoplastons" the only treatment option left for her?

After her parents looked at the statistics and probable quality of life and perceived lifespan of those who endure more traditional rounds of chemo and radiation they made the decision to go with what they felt would give her the best quality of life overall. They don't want to simply give her a cure that will make her suffer massively now and give her a legacy of health and mortal consequences more tied to the treatment than the actual cure.

Wishing you all the luck and good energy you can muster, Ethan.

Thank you. It's very much appreciated!

Wish you the best - brain cancer has ravaged my family.

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