Family whose son age 4 has rare cancer have only four months to raise money needed for US treatment

The family of a four-year-old boy with a rare cancer are racing to put together the remainder of the money they need to take their son to America to take part in a clinical trial.

“We need to raise €250,000 and so far have raised €100,000 and we only have four months left to raise the remainder,” the boy’s father Steven Sofocleous said in an email to the Cyprus Mail, which featured Nicholas’ story in June this year.

Nicholas was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic high-risk Neuroblastoma last Christmas. After undergoing eight rapid chemotherapy treatments in Cyprus, he and his mother Alfia went to Germany in March, where he is expected to stay for about a year and undergo surgery for the removal of the tumour in his stomach, stem cell transfer and high dose chemotherapy treatments.

In the last year Nicholas had nine rounds of chemotherapy, one bone marrow transplant, a surgery to remove his right adrenal gland and one tumour the size of a tennis ball, 12 rounds of radiation and three rounds – he needs to do 5 rounds – of painful immunotherapy and requires lots of morphine to relieve the pain

“Nicholas was in hospital on Christmas Day, for his 3rd cycle of immunotherapy in Berlin. We should be finishing in April his treatments in Berlin, and are fundraising for him to go to New York on a clinical trial which the government does not cover, but which is important to stop the cancer from coming back,” Steven said.

He said the family also wanted to send a Christmas message of hope “that no matter what you are facing, your health is the most important thing in life and should not be taken for granted”.
“We also want to tell people that they should never ever give up and never lose hope. We also want to thank everyone for their support while our baby fights for his life and to help us to get to New York,” Steven said.

“Through it all, our Nicholas has inspired us with his strength and has kept smiling throughout this terrible ordeal. Even in hospital at Christmas, he still smiles. We hope his story inspires others to never give up.”
Born in Limassol, Nicholas is described by his father as a “fun loving boy who loves dinosaurs and his toy cars”. He is trilingual, speaking fluent Greek, English and Russian.

To donate:

Go Get Funding: https://gogetfunding.com/nicholas-the-brave/

Bank of Cyprus

Account Number 033700004185

IBAN CY88002003370000000000418500

SWIFT / BIC BCYPCY2N

Account Name TAIROVA ALFIA

Revolute: @alfia2a5i

Beneficiary Alfia Tairova

IBAN LT89 3250 0481 3187 0275

BIC REVOLT21

Paypal: paypal.me/NicholasFightsCancer

Paypal email: [email protected] (Through a personal friends and family payment to avoid fees)