Former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman shared some unfortunate news on Thursday.
The MMA fighter revealed that his young nephew, Josh, was diagnosed with a “rare and aggressive” form of pediatric cancer earlier this summer.
Weidman shared an Instagram post with a heartfelt caption and video message.
On July 14th our nephew Josh was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of pediatric cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. It is a soft tissue cancer that spreads quickly and has a very high relapse rate. Overnight our family has been thrown into the cancer world and a lot of heartbreaking and frustrating moments have followed. Josh is a very active, loving and athletic boy who is a brother to 5 other amazing kids. He is always the one to stop and help someone in need physically or emotionally. He has always been our son’s biggest cheerleader, motivator and side kick. He has a long 10-11 month road ahead of him filled with chemo treatments, radiation and surgeries. We have listed a few ways you can help our family and kids that are going through what Josh is going through:
1. Keep Josh and his family in your daily prayers. We believe God is the ultimate healer and he can bring us all peace, wisdom, resources and guidance in this unimaginable time.
2. There is a go fund me page linked in my bio. Here is just a snip it of costs that affect families with cancer— gas to go back and forth to the hospital in the middle of the day or night for emergencies(which has happened multiple times a week), gas for the weekly routine treatment and testing and gas to get to different doctors for different opinions and different issues arising from treatment. While Josh and his parents are in the hospital majority of the week, they don’t have a kitchen to make food so they have to order food for themselves and the children they are leaving behind at home. He has several medications he has to take everyday when he is not in the hospital. It is hard for him to eat because of the mucusitis and the nausea from the medication he is taking, so finding food that he can tolerate and is nutritious is very difficult and expensive. The list goes on and on. Many parents and supporting family members can’t work normal hours because of the constant trips to the emergency room. So if you can, please donate.
The sports world shared their love and support in the comments.
“So sad 🙁 I hope he beats it,” one fan wrote.
“Prayers for the little man,” another said.
“Feel better josh,” another wrote.
The 38-year-old fighter said his nephew will have to go through 42 weeks of chemotherapy to battle this rare form of cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
Weidman encouraged fans to support Josh by donating to his GoFundMe page.
Get well soon, Josh.