Local residents and former co-workers are reaching out to help a friend in need.
Robert Taylor, 32, Carthage was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-growing form of cancer, on Christmas Eve. Now friends and former co-workers have raised enough money to get the heat turned on in their home and buy tires for their car.
Michael Wells, a friend of the Taylor family and organizer of the community effort to help the family, said Taylor has gone through the first of four courses of chemotherapy, beginning the road to recovery. Dozens of local residents, including former co-workers, have raised hundreds of dollars to help the Taylors, but more help is needed.
"This family is in such a financial need, but I know it helped when Robert's old co-workers at the Carthage Flex-o-Lator plant took up a collection for him," said family friend Michael Wells. "That money raised helped pay the propane bill and bought the two new tires, but they've still got bills piling up."
Wells said other individuals and business owners have been donating to the family as well.
The American Cancer Society gave Jennifer Taylor a $500 pre-paid gas card to help with driving back and forth from Carthage to St. Louis, Wells said.
Wells said Taylor is upbeat and working to fight the disease.
Wells said Levi, the Taylors' 21-month-old son, is sad, though, and hasn't seen his parents for any length of time in almost three weeks.
"He's been switching back and forth between our house and his grandparents," Wells said. "He hasn't seen his dad since Christmas Eve and his mom got to come home once since then. He's pretty sad. Even for his age, he knows something is wrong, but he doesn't understand."
Taylor was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on Christmas Eve after feeling ill for about three weeks. Seventeen days earlier, on Dec. 7, Taylor was laid off from his job at the Carthage Flex-o-Lators plant, then on Dec. 9, the ice storm struck, knocking out electricity to the family's home for almost a week.
Taylor, his wife Jennifer, 29, and son Levi, stayed with Wells and his family while the power was out, and Robert Taylor had felt ill the whole time he was at his home, Wells said.
Two doctors diagnosed Robert Taylor with tonsillitis, but the antibiotics they prescribed had little effect.
Finally on Christmas Eve, Jennifer Taylor took her husband to McCune-Brooks Hospital where a blood test showed an extremely high white-blood-cell count, a symptom of leukemia. Doctors at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin confirmed the diagnosis and Robert Taylor was taken by helicopter to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis where he was placed in intensive care.
Wells said Robert Taylor was removed from the ICU on New Years Day and doctors told him his bone marrow was normal.
Wells said the doctors told the family there was a 50-50 chance that his leukemia will go into remission after four courses of chemotherapy, each of which will last about five-seven days.
Wells also said there is a chance that Robert Taylor will get to come home in a month, but he will still have to drive to St. Louis twice a week for his chemotherapy treatments.
People interested in donating to the fund can go to any Arvest Bank location and donate to the Taylor Benefit fund in care of Jennifer Taylor.
Cards or letters can be mailed to Taylor Benefit, P.O. Box 69, Carthage, Mo., 64836.
An email address has been established for those who would like to email words of encouragement to the Taylor Family. The email address is taylorbenefit@hotmail.com
What Is Acute Myeloid Leukemia?
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) goes by many names, including acute myelocytic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, acute granulocytic leukemia, and acute non-lymphocytic leukemia. "Acute" means that the leukemia can progress quickly, and if not treated, would probably be fatal in a few months.
AML is a cancer that starts in cells that would normally develop into different types of blood cells. Most cases of AML develop from cells that would turn into white blood cells (other than lymphocytes), but some cases of AML develop in other types of blood-forming cells. (Acute leukemia that develops in lymphocytes is called acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). For more information on this type of leukemia, see the American Cancer Society document, Leukemia--Acute Lymphocytic.)
AML starts in the bone marrow (the soft inner part of the bones, where new blood cells are made), but in most cases it quickly moves into the blood. It can sometimes spread to other parts of the body including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and testes.
Other types of cancer can start in these organs and then spread to the bone marrow. But these cancers that start elsewhere and then spread to the bone marrow are not leukemia.
Source: The American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org
