Concert, Newtown Fund Try To Help

Young Cancer Patient

A fundraising concert, “A Cure For Joey,” will be held on Friday, July 30, in Woodbury for Joey Eckler, a 13-year-old Sandy Hook youth who is undergoing experimental treatment for a malignant brain tumor. The Newtown Fund also has established a fund for Joey’s medical expenses.

The son of Laurie and Richard Eckler, Joey has had 11 surgeries, including three major brain operations, and two years of chemotherapy for the tumor, which is wedged between the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the optic nerve. The tumor and surgeries left Joey partially blind and with diabetes insipidus.

Despite the treatment, the tumor, which cannot be completely removed, began to grow again. With the approval of his oncologist, Joey’s parents enrolled him in a phase II clinical trial being conducted by the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas. Joey is receiving antineoplaston therapy, which supplies him with large quantities of peptides that individuals with cancer lack in their systems. He is hooked up to a portable pump 24 hours a day and receives infusions throughout the day.

Unlike chemotherapy, which caused debilitating side effects, the new therapy has been much easier to undergo, his mother said. Although Joey sometimes gets headaches and feels tired, he is still able to attend classes at the Waldorf School in Newtown, where he is entering eighth grade this fall.

“This therapy isn’t toxic like chemo,” Mrs Eckler said. “The best part of the treatment is that Joey is responding to it and his tumor has shrunk by approximately 20 percent.”

But the treatment is expensive, more than $7,000 per month, and despite an appeal process that lasted nearly a year, the medical insurance plan declined to cover the cost.

So far the Eckert family has paid approximately $70,000 for Joey’s medical expenses. They have exhausted their savings and pursued every avenue for borrowing, and still owe more than $36,000 in unpaid medical bills.

The family now is also faced with the possibility of Joey being denied treatment if they cannot pay the bills.

So Nick Larsson, a graduate of the Waldorf School in Newtown, and his friends wanted to do something to help. They have arranged a concert at Hollow Park on Hollow Road (off Route 371) in Woodbury from 4 to 7 pm on Friday, July 30. The concert will feature the Shrdlu Band, playing blues, rock, R&B, and fiddle; the Josh Berry Experience, original groove rock; and Larry Deming, on fiddle. Admission is by donation.

The Newtown Fund also has set up a fund for Joey. Donations are tax deductible, and will go specifically to cover Joey’s medical expenses. Checks should be made out to The Newtown Fund, with “Joey Eckler” written in the check’s memo area, and mailed to: Newtown Fund PO Box 641, Newtown CT 06470.

More information about Joey Eckler is available at www.cureforjoey.com. To learn more about the antineoplaston treatment, visit the Burzynski clinic website at www.cancermed.com.