Dripping Springs 8th-grader raises $4K for new friend fighting leukemia without insurance
DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) — When Kyle Parker found out his friend was fighting leukemia, he didn’t waste any time coming up with a way to help.
The Dripping Springs 8th-grader had created some designs in the past and immediately started planning to make and sell t-shirts to support Enzo DeMarco, a fellow 8th-grader who was diagnosed with the blood cancer in late September.
The design, featuring the words, “Faith, Family, Football,” represents what reminded Enzo’s friends about him. Kyle started selling the shirts through a foundation his family started earlier this year when his uncle was fighting cancer.
“I didn’t think it would get this popular,” Parker said.
In all, he sold 350 shirts, raising $4,000 for the DeMarco family. Every dollar helps, Enzo’s mom said, because they’re currently uninsured.
“That’s his medicine for one month,” Autumn DeMarco said. “That’s an EKG that pops up out of the blue.”
But the gesture is even more important. “It lifted his spirits in the hospital so much,” she added.
You can buy a shirt through Dec. 1 here, or donate to a GoFundMe page dedicated to Enzo here.
Enzo’s diagnosis
At first, Enzo’s mom thought he’d caught a bug floating around the school at the start of the semester.
“He had a little runny nose, 99-degree fever, nothing crazy, just wasn’t feeling great,” DeMarco said. “That went away and came back a week later, and I was like, okay, something’s weird.”
Physicians took blood samples and ran some tests. DeMarco was speechless when Enzo’s doctor called and said he’d need to start seeing oncology specialists immediately to start treating her son’s acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“I was just kind of in shock,” she said. “Like, was not expecting that at all. He had a football game that night, you know. We were getting ready for that.”
Enzo started chemotherapy the next day.
“I felt kind of like, almost like it was a dream,” Enzo said. “I didn’t know what to think about it.”
A month and a half later, the reality of regular chemo treatments is sinking in, but Enzo keeps a positive outlook. Confident he will heal, he says some good will come of the diagnosis; he plans to submit a Make-A-Wish request to help with Austin’s homelessness crisis in some way, though he’s not sure yet what that will look like.
A fast friendship
His friends are helping him stay positive, too. His classmates and the entire community have rallied to his side.
A left tackle on the school’s football team, his teammates dyed their hair pink to show him they’re fighting with him. Two large posters hang on the school walls, where teachers and students can write notes of support.
Kyle decided to help, too, despite the fact that he’d only just met Enzo a couple weeks earlier.
New to the district and the school, the 13-year-old started talking to Enzo’s group of friends in class one day while Enzo was absent.
“I didn’t know who Kyle was at first, so there was like a week where I was just saying like, ‘Hey, hey,’ because I didn’t know his name,” Enzo said.
The fact that his new friend was selling t-shirts to benefit him caught him by surprise. The fact that so many people in the Dripping Springs community did not.
“It doesn’t matter if you know them or not,” Enzo said. “It’s just kind of like a Dripping camaraderie.”
Next steps
Treating blood cancers like leukemia is expensive. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society found in a study last year the cost can exceed $156,000 in just the first year of treatment.
In the year following, bills can reach $4,500 each month.
The Parkers didn’t know how much they’d be able to raise through the t-shirts, but they didn’t care.
“Whether it be $100 or whether it be $4,000,” Stephanie Parker, Kyle’s mom, said, “I knew that it was going to make an impact, and Kyle knew that, too. He had been through it with my brother, he understood, and that’s what he said: ‘Mom, we have to do something.'”
Enzo will stay on chemo treatments for the next year and a half. The prognosis is looking positive, he said, and his faith tells him he’ll continue healing.
“I know we’ll get him taken care of no matter what,” Autumn DeMarco said.
It helps to know that everyone in the Dripping Springs community, including classmates at her son’s school, will fight alongside Enzo in the months to come.
“They’re goofy,” she said. “They’re doing silly boy things, you know? And the fact that this kid who just met Enzo stepped out of his own little world and did this for somebody was awesome. I think we could all really learn a lot about that.”