By Melissa Moore-Randall
On Thursday, October 5th, the LIncoln School will host a movie night benefiting the Chavarria family. RMA Sixth-grader Cristopher Chavarria’s family is trying to raise funds to get them to Texas Children’s Hospital for a potential life saving trial for Christopher.
His Lincoln family is hosting the Movie Night on Thursday, October 5 starting at 3:45 with doors opening at 3:30. They will be showing Disney Pixar’s Elemental. Refreshments will also be sold.
Cris, 11, was diagnosed with leukemia when he began 1st Grade at Lincoln. For almost three years, he endured three grueling years of chemotherapy. Throughout his many hospital stays and while battling the severe side effects of his treatment, Cris attended school when he felt well enough. Referred to as a “soldier” by his family during the entire time, he was finally deemed cancer free.
Fast forward to 5 months ago. Cris and his family received devastating news that the leukemia had returned which was a more aggressive and rare form. His doctors tried many different levels of chemotherapy. With the last treatment, Cris suffered convulsions, vomiting and relentless pain.
Cris was entered into the “Be the Match” registry. According to their website, “Be The Match connects patients with a matching donor for a live-saving blood stem cell transplant”. A couple of months after entering the registry, his family’s prayers were answered when a perfect match was found. This euphoric feeling was short lived as the potential donor backed out.
For the past 5 months, Cris and his mother, Yohana, have been living at Boston Children’s Hospital. His doctors said they were no longer able to treat Cris since they had run out of options, and that there would be no transplant. They gave the family the choice of taking him home.
Yohana and her husband, Victor, refused to accept this news and asked about other hospitals or clinics that potentially offered alternative treatments. Cris’s doctors did their research and found that Texas Children’s Hospital had a trial that appeared to be very promising.
His family has to pay their own way to and from Texas and all the living expenses while there which will be at least 5 weeks. Victor will have to leave his job to be with Yohana and Cris. In addition, they have a 9 year old son, Dylan, along with their mortgage and anticipated future bills.
If you are not able to attend the fundraiser, there is a GoFund Me donation page set up. Visit www.gofundme.com and search HELP CRIS GET TO TEXAS FOR A LIFE SAVING TRIAL.
