Meet Brandon
HELLO!
Our founder Brandon Gabino Gonzalez was born on January 6, 2003. He was studying Finance at Villanova University. He was a first generation, Ecuadorian college student and lived with his parents Maria and Gabino, and little brother Jason and dogs Hazel and Nova. Growing up he loved to hangout with his friends, family, and play sports.
During the summer of 2017, when he headed into high school, he began to get random headaches and become very nauseous a lot throughout the days. We drove several hours visiting several doctors but no one had any answers to his symptoms. Everything changed in early July after spending a weekend with his two best friends down the shore.
Early in July 10, 2017 his symptoms began again. But this time his pain was unbearable. His mother immediately called the local hospital for an ambulance, and after spending 2 hours, the doctors found a cancerous tumor in the back of his brain. He was immediately put on another ambulance to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and when he arrived he was put into emergency brain surgery. "Before I was put into surgery, I thought that I would be back on the football field in weeks...but boy was I wrong."
After surgery, Brandon spent a month in the hospital to regain the ability to do things that he did on a daily basis like walk, talk, tie my shoes and so much more. Every day his routine consisted of eating, doing some sort of therapy, and finding something amusing to do. It became very hard at times to stay positive, but the people around him always kept him positive.
Once he was finally released his fight continued. He completed 30 rounds of radiation and went through 4 rounds of chemotherapy. The treatment process had so many ups and downs and he knew that it would not have been possible without the friends and family that supported him through it all.
After 2 years of being cancer free he was diagnosed once again in August of 2020. Since then he kept up with his battle with cancer and wanted to help others fight as well.
"I know how much the emotional and financial support can help a family that is going through or has went through something like I did so I am here to make a difference one family at a time."