February 07
Welcome to christianandsheila.org, a site dedicated to Christian and Sheila Meyer and their family. Both six year old Christian and his mother, Sheila, are battling, rare, incurable cancers. They are supported by Doug, Christian's father and Sheila's husband of 25 years, brother Cameron (age 9), and sister Stephanie (age 20), currently attending Boston College.
In September 2002, it was discovered that Christian, then age 2, had developed a large mass in his brain which was confirmed to be a tumor known as Ependymoma. The rarity and recurrent nature of this tumor has created an on-going battle and to date, Christian has had five surgeries to remove the recurring tumor in addition to three radiation treatments and six different chemotherapy trials.
As if that were not enough, Christian's mother Sheila was diagnosed on Christmas Eve 2003 with stage IV leiomyosarcoma, another very rare form of cancer. Sheila has had three surgeries to remove a recurring growth from her scalp, chemotherapy to address the tumors in her lungs and, most recently, radiation to treat a large tumor in her leg. While the lung mets have been under control, Sheila has been receiving chemotherapy treatments, continuously for the past 3 years, to help contain this rare and aggressive cancer.
It can be devastating when one family member is afflicted with cancer, but when two are fighting cancer simultaneously, the challenges are often overwhelming. The love, faith, and support of family and friends has been wonderful and it is our sincere hope that others will help in our mission to support Christian and Sheila.
October, 2008
Christian Meyer passed. Family and friends remember his love and light well. Reflections of his life are represented in Readings from Christian's funeral.
Please feel free to sign the guestbook and read Sheila's letter which is an eloquent and moving summary of the family's plight.