A Call for Action

Jarred Meyer, 21-year-old victim of Osteosarcoma.  A cancer that preys on the young.  1 in 3 that are diagnosed with Osteosarcoma will not survive.  The treatment is brutal.  Weeklong chemo infusions every 21 days spread over more than a year.  Amputations are common.  If you have a reoccurrence, as was the case for Jarred, your chances for long term survival drop to less than 15%.  He is betting against the odds, but he needs your help to live his life to the fullest.  The goal of this fund-raising site is to raise $100,000 to cover the costs of sport prosthetics not covered by insurance and the various everyday needs a cancer fighter, navigating life as an above knee amputee, may have.

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If you are like me, Jarred's cousin, there have been thousands of times when you have asked yourself, "What can I do to help Jarred?" or "What can I say or do that will actually make a difference?". Food, flowers, texts… all those things go away and Jarred is still at home adjusting to a new version of life after the loss of his leg AND simultaneously fighting to even have a life at all.

My husband, Chris, and I had the pleasure this summer of spending a week with Jarred and his family in Hawaii celebrating him being done with his chemo treatments. We all celebrated his beautiful blonde hair growing back in. We celebrated him going for hikes, snorkeling, surfing, skydiving, laughing, loving, AND living. I loved seeing the smiles on his parent's, Mark and Lotta, faces as they watched Jarred enjoy life again. I loved hearing the kids laughing and enjoying being together. It had been a little over 18 months since his original diagnosis. It had been 16 rounds of week long chemo treatments that included the red devil—the worst of the worst chemo that you can only have so many times before it destroys your organs. It had been moments of absolute horror, hearing the diagnosis, hearing the treatment plan, moments of uncontrollable pain, and hours/days/months of vomiting even when he had nothing left inside of him.  

Jarred--with the help of his girlfriend Chloe, his parents and siblings--has fought from the beginning. He did the surgeries, he did the treatments, he did everything he was supposed to do, and he was rewarded with ringing the last treatment bell in July 2022. He was rewarded with what I thought was the most beautiful word in the English language…remission. Until a few years ago, when a disease impacted my children’s lives, I didn’t know the true meaning of remission. 

Webster defines remission as a diminution (a reduction in the size, extent, or importance of something) of the seriousness or intensity of disease or pain; a temporary recovery.

Temporary recovery… my heart dropped when I read the definition. We all so badly wanted Jarred to be cured, for his battle to be done, and for him to heal physically and emotionally from the last two years of nonstop hell. Instead, he had just four short months of repose. Four months to grow his hair back. Four months to get a new job he loved. Four months to enjoy the gift of health. Four months to finally resume the plans for his life that he had put on hold for two years. Four months to be a "normal" 21 year old kid.

In October of 2022, Jarred, Chloe and his family had the rug pulled out from under them again. Not only was the cancer back, but this time they needed to amputate his leg above the knee. This is where I can barely write as the tears stream down my face. We have all watched Jarred fight to still do the things he loved even when he had physical struggles because of the first two times they removed his tumor. Jarred is a natural athlete. He loves surfing and snow boarding. The loss of his leg is more than just how he will get around, it could mean the loss of all the activities he loves & the things that bring him joy despite the battles life has thrown at him.  

And this is where we can all finally do something. Please help us to raise money for Jarred’s sports prosthetics and other needs not covered by insurance. With less than a 15% chance of long term survival, it's that much more important to act now. In addition, for every $10 you donate towards Jarred's leg, $1 will be donated to the Osteosarcoma Institute to further research for a cure and spare other children and young adults from this dreadful disease. With the current treatments, 1 in 3 children diagnosed with this type of cancer will not survive. 

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We all know each day of life is a gift, but for Jarred we don’t know how many days he will have. Our wish for him is that everyday he does have, he is able to go out and live his best life. That he can surf, that he can snowboard, and with all this positive energy and love from all of us giving him this leg, he can keep fighting the fight so that one day we hear the word cured.