Teens React to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)

(silence)

♪ (pensive ballad) ♪

- (narrator) Growing up in Orlando, Florida,
Nik was a bright, vibrant kid.

But in 2010, his parents
started noticing small changes in Nik

that would turn out
to be signs of a big problem.

- (dad) It was probably one
or two o'clock in the morning

and he said "It feels
like my back's broken."

- Uh-oh.

- (dad) We went to get blood work.

On the way home, they called and said
"You need to rush him to a hospital."

- Oh no.

- (dad) Dr. Selsky sat down
and he had said, you know,

Nikolas has leukemia.
- Oh my god.

- (dad) It was like
getting punched in the face.

- Yeah, that's not anything
you wanna hear.

- (Nik) I thought
I was just gonna be fine.

- (dad) He did a lot of chemo...

- Oh, that's, like,
every parents' worst nightmare.

- That has to hurt so bad.

Not just as a kid, but for the parents.

- (dad) He was throwing up non-stop.
- That's awful.

- (Nik) You just always feel sick.

You never really feel good
when you're going through chemo.

- I couldn't imagine being that young
and going through such a harsh illness.

- (dad) And that was
one of the first times I think we realized

the power of his love for Star Wars.

♪ (Star Wars anthem) ♪

- Yes! Okay, Star Wars can cure anything.

- (mom) We put it as, okay,
cancer is the dark side.

To him, he was a Jedi.
- That's awesome.

- That's such good parenting.
I love it. (laughing)

- (mom) And it also helped
to give him strength to fight it.

- (dad) We did two years of treatment.

Two years he didn't go to school.

- (mom) He was almost done
and that's when he relapsed.

(heavy sigh)

- (mom) It's like you get
one more dose of hardcore chemo

and if this doesn't work, then, you know,
there's nothing we can do for you

except for to make you
comfortable until you go.

- Dang, that's crazy.

That has to be so scary, just to say,
"You know, we have one more try.

If this doesn't work,
we're just gonna wait for you to die."

- My mom had cancer and so seeing, like--

I had to stay at the hospital
so many nights

and watch her go through chemo--
and seeing that,

it's like reliving it in a way.

♪ (pensive music) ♪

- (Elizabeth) With Abigail,
I loved being pregnant.

When I had Andrew, it was so different.

He was not moving around
like my previous pregnancy.

The doctor came in and said
"You got pancreatic cancer."

- Dang.

- (doctor) She had stage four
pancreatic cancer.

- Oh my god.

- (doctor) One in six, actually,
survive one year.

- (Elizabeth) I felt doomed.
- Wow.

- (Elizabeth) I would sit there
and I would picture

my children and my husband
and them moving on...

and that hurt.
- Oh my god.

I can't imagine being pregnant
and then finding that out.

- It's just an awful thing to think about,
to be leaving so early

and missing everything.

- (Finebros) So, statistically,
there's expected to be

almost 600,000 cancer deaths
this year alone in the U.S.

- Jesus.

- (Finebros) But, thankfully,
for Nik and Elizabeth

they joined another statistic,
the survivors.

We're gonna show you
some more from them now.

- Awesome.

- Yay!

- (doctor) When Elizabeth walked in,
we had some confidence

that we had some new tools.
- Good. Good. (laughs)

- (doctor) What she is receiving
is a chemotherapy treatment,

as targeted as we can make it.

- (Elizabeth) Every time
I would get a scan,

everything kept looking better.

I was shocked that they're talking
about radiation inserts...

- It probably feels so much better
to actually get good news for once.

- (Elizabeth) ... that was ever gonna happen.

On March 28th, they removed
the tail of the pancreas.

- (husband) May 5th
was the follow-up to her surgery,

when the doctor came in and said,
you know, everything's fine.

- That's so great.

- (Elizabeth) He told me
I was boring. (laughs)

And that was the best.

- That's probably a good thing
if you're boring to a doctor.

- (Elizabeth) If I hadn't been
pregnant with Andrew,

they might have never found
the cancer until it was too late.

I tell him he's my angel.
- That's incredible.

- That's crazy.

I'm glad there's
another part to her story.

- Everything is for a reason.
I still believe in that statement.

- (dad) Dr. Selsky came in and he said

"There's a study that you can go into,

but the problem is
you gotta be there tomorrow."

- (narrator) Nik was placed
on a clinical trial

assembled and funded
by the Stand Up to Cancer...

- Yeah, Stand Up to Cancer.
I'm familiar with that organization.

They're great.

- (narrator) The collaboration
funds cutting-edge research

in the field of immunotherapy.

- (Nik) About a week
after they did the infusion

I started to feel good.

I thought something had gone right.

- (dad) Absolutely,
100%, it saved his life.

♪ (inspirational music) ♪

- He's like a normal kid now.

That's crazy!

- (narrator) These days,
Nik is back to his old life.

- (doctor) Nik is a poster child
for the promise of research and the power--

- Man, medical research's
amazing nowadays, what they can do.

- (dad) Thank you
from the bottom of my heart

from everybody who knows Nikolas,

from everybody who is gonna
meet him for the rest of his life.

- Oh, charities.

Some people think charities
do nothing, but here it is.

Here's the proof right here.

- It's these organizations
that just make me feel so good

'cause they really put
their money and effort

into just finding cures for diseases.

- It's so heartwarming to see all of that,

but I mean, the unfortunate part
is that there are so many more cases

that need to be treated.

- (Finebros) What kinds
of thoughts do you get

when you see the stories of these people?

- To see these type of stories, it's weird.

This could've been me.

- I just feel absolutely horrible
and very empathetic towards the families.

Cancer is just an awful thing.

- Sadly, these stories are not unique
and they're not uncommon,

so it's important for that person
who's going through that

to know that they're not alone.

- For someone who, like--
let's say someone just got diagnosed,

they can see these videos
and say, you know,

it'll be bad, but it can get better.

- I just appreciate being here.

Everyone just needs
to take a second sometimes

just to appreciate everything they have,
whether that be a little bit or a lot.

- (Finebros) Unfortunately,
it seems like cancer has affected

almost everyone in one way or another.

Has your life been affected
by cancer at all?

- Um, personally, no,
but I have a lot of relatives

who have dealt with stuff.

- My grandma had cancer,
I wanna say a couple years ago.

- My great grandma and then
my grandma have had cancer before.

They both lived though.

- My god-brother's husband's mother,
she had breast cancer.

She survived, persevered,
is still alive with us today.

- With my mom going through it,
it was just kind of like

having to relive all of that.

The good thing with her, though,
was that it was really early,

so even from the beginning
there wasn't any--

they were like, "No, 99.9%,
she'll be cured.

It's just that initial feeling
of having to be sat down and told,

you know, I'm sick-- I have cancer.

Your stomach just kind of drops.

- I actually lost my grandfather
to cancer eight, nine years ago.

I lost him so early.

I barely have any memories with him
'cause I was so young

and so it's just awful.

- (Finebros) So what both
of these stories had in common

was the intervention
of the charitable organization

Stand Up to Cancer,
whose mission is to raise funds

to accelerate the pace
of groundbreaking research

that can get new therapies to patients
quickly and save lives now.

Is this an organization
you've heard of before?

- I have never heard of this organization,
but I'm happy that it exists.

- I have, yeah.

I've seen a couple commercials for it.

- At the hospital
that my mom was treated at,

they had posters and ads there.

They provide funding for new research.

- (Finebros) Stand Up to Cancer uses
100% of donations

to help fund research to combat cancer.

Do you think it's important,
if you are able to,

to donate to organizations like this?
- I definitely think it's important.

- Definitely. If you can,
you really should.

Any amount really helps.

- It doesn't have to be $200.
It could be $5.

And that might not seem
like a lot, but, you know,

don't get your Starbucks that morning

and donate $5 to a cancer research fund.

- Even if right now
cancer's not affecting you

or anybody you know,
you never know when it could happen.

- You can't do it on your own
because you don't have a job.

Like me, I don't have a job.

You can always go out
and raise money from other people,

so fundraising is always a great way.

You might look into
if they have volunteer work

'cause they might have events
that are built for fundraising.

You can go volunteer at those events.

- You can always talk about
their organization.

Tell your friends, you know,
even tell your school.

- The cure for all these cancers is there.

Someone just needs to see it
in a different perspective and find it.

People don't realize, like-- they're like,

"Oh, my penny's not gonna make--
it's just a penny."

But if everyone in the world was like
"Oh, it's just a penny,"

and then they donated it,
that's a lot of money.

- (Finebros) Do you think it's important
for people and shows

that have an audience
to discuss organizations like this one?

- Um, yeah, I think it's important.

- It's definitely important
because I didn't know about it before.

- This is how you bring funding
to such great organizations

that are gonna do these super cool things
for cancer patients.

- By everyone talking about it,
it gets around, people know about it,

they hear what a great cause it is,
they can donate, they can help,

they can volunteer, they can do whatever.

- We have this platform with
so many millions of viewers and subscribers

so if we just get, you know,
these names circulating

and these ideas circulating,
that could really go somewhere.

- (Finebros) Finally, what would you want
to say to anyone watching this episode

who may be battling cancer
or other diseases?

- Just always have hope
and know that you're not alone

and you have family and friends,
and even people that you don't know--

like me-- that we care about you.

- You can never lose hope.

You just need to stay positive
and really fight.

Don't give up and you can get through it.

- You are so strong
and even if you don't feel like you are

or it doesn't seem like it,
you have so much power within you.

- I can't imagine what these people
are going through

and, you know, it breaks my heart.

There's just so many people
who are praying for these people

to pull through because it affects
more than just the person going through it.

It's the loved ones,
and I just...

I don't know, it's just so important
to stay positive.

- You're already a strong person
and I can't believe

you're going through this,

but just the fact that
these organizations are out here,

I hope you feel a little safer

and a little bit that there's hope
out there because there is.

- Thanks for watching
this important episode of Teens React.

- Please donate if you're able to.
It would help a lot.

The links are down below.

- Spread the word however you can

and join all of us
in standing up to cancer.

(silence)