Shannon James Wiemers

My husband, Shannon, is only 27 years old. He is my best friend, the love of my life, and the most devoted father to our 10-month-old son, Lincoln. We never imagined that our lives would change overnight when Shannon was diagnosed with Grade 4 astrocytoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

At just 27 years old, Shannon should be spending these years chasing our little boy around the house, teaching him to ride a bike, planning family vacations, and dreaming about the future we were building together. Instead, our days are now filled with doctor appointments, treatments, MRI scans, and impossible decisions that no young family should ever have to face. The future we had always pictured suddenly became uncertain.

If you know Shannon, you know that giving up has never been part of who he is. Even while undergoing daily radiation and chemotherapy, he continues to run nearly seven miles every day. Running has always been one of his greatest passions, but today it has become so much more than exercise. Every mile is his way of telling cancer that it does not get to define him. He continues to show up for our family with incredible strength, courage, and unwavering faith, even on the hardest days. Through all of this, he has remained the rock of our family, reminding us every day what it means to keep fighting.

As we navigate this heartbreaking journey, we are committed to pursuing every possible option that could give Shannon more time with our family. While we are grateful for the excellent care he is receiving at both UT Southwestern and MD Anderson, we have also learned just how limited the available treatment options are for someone with his diagnosis.

Because Shannon has a Grade 4 astrocytoma, he does not qualify for many clinical trials. Most brain cancer trials are designed for patients with glioblastoma, and the few studies that do include astrocytoma patients are often full or currently unavailable. After countless appointments, second opinions, and hundreds of hours researching every possible path forward, we realized we could not simply wait and hope another opportunity would become available anytime soon.

That search led us to CeGAT’s personalized immunotherapy program in Germany.  https://cegat.com/diagnostics/tumor-diseases/cancerneo/.  CeGAT creates individualized vaccines using the unique genetic characteristics of each patient’s tumor with the goal of helping the body’s immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. While there are no guarantees with any treatment, we believe it’s a chance worth fighting for. We have read about other patients with Grade 4 astrocytoma who have pursued this treatment, and their experiences have encouraged us to believe it is a viable path. After carefully weighing the financial cost, the travel, and the uncertainty, we still believe this is Shannon’s best opportunity to pursue an additional treatment beyond standard of care. Our current medical team supports this vetted protocol; however, the treatment isn’t yet available in the US due to FDA progress – there are few clinical trials in process, showing promising results, however they are small and fully occupied by current patients. 

The cost of treatment is overwhelming, but we refuse to let finances determine whether Shannon has access to a treatment we believe in. The cost to manufacture the individual vaccines is approximately €80,000 (about $94,000 USD), not including international travel, lodging, and ongoing medical expenses. Because each vaccine is custom-made, it can take up to six months to create. Once they are complete, Shannon will travel to Germany every four to six weeks to receive his personalized vaccines until all 14 treatments have been completed.

We’ve created both this Help Hope Live account and a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to make supporting our family as easy as possible. GoFundMe allows friends and loved ones to help us immediately with ongoing medical and travel expenses. While Help Hope Live, a national nonprofit, provides a separate, simple, tax-deductible vehicle to support our specific medical expenses as well.  Every donation, no matter the amount, helps ease the financial burden and brings us one step closer to giving Shannon access to this treatment.

If you feel led to support our family through a donation, a prayer, or simply by sharing our story, we are deeply grateful. Every act of support is a reminder that we are not fighting this battle alone.

Asking for help is not easy for us. Shannon has always been the first person to show up for someone in need, never expecting anything in return. Today, we’re asking for your help so our son can have more time with his dad, I can have more years with the love of my life, and Shannon can have every possible opportunity to continue fighting this disease.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Thank you for every prayer, every share, every donation, and every message of encouragement. We truly believe that God is bigger than this diagnosis, and we trust that He is walking beside us every step of this journey. Your love, prayers, and support mean more to our family than words could ever express.

With love and gratitude,

Hannah, Shannon, and Lincoln

Link to our GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/5d70b4e0c