The Gilchrist family: in front, Chase, sitting at left; Austin and Nicole holding Bentley. Scott in the back row with Blake.
Seven-year-old Chase Gilchrist of Marlton has battled cancer nearly his whole life — from his first brain tumor at 12 months old and, just recently, his fourth episode. This time, two tumors, rather than the single ones of the past, sit in his head.
While the DeMasi Elementary second grader is the lead character in this tale of courage, equally as compelling is the supporting cast: his mom and dad, his two older brothers, his grandparents and great-grandparents. And that's just the beginning, with friends, neighbors, teachers and strangers who turned into benefactors also playing important roles.
But don't ask Chase about the cancer.
"He doesn't like when I talk about it," his mom, Nicole Bailer Gilchrist told 70and73.com in a telephone interview Sunday evening. "I'm not Chase with cancer. I'm just Chase," he often says, according to his mother.
Monday night (June 15), Chase will get his own social-distancing vehicle parade. First responders, motorcyclists, friends and others who want to honor Chase will assemble in the DeMasi parking lot at 6 p.m., leaving at 6:30 for the parade to his home.
The outpouring of kindness from South Jersey residents is stunning, Nicole said.
Like on Saturday, when a couple who are both airline pilots used their personal plane to fly Chase and big brother Austin, 13, on a circuit that included the skylines of New York City, Philadelphia and Atlantic City.
Or a few years ago when a man met a bald Chase — he was undergoing chemotherapy — in the line at McDonald's. The man had recently lost his daughter in a traffic accident and, after he began to cry, Chase gave him a hug. He asked where Chase would like to go and Chase said Legoland in Florida. That Thanksgiving, the guy showed up at the Gilchrist home with a check for $5,000 for the family trip.
Nicole, 36, who went to Cherokee High School as did her mother, is an advocate for cancer nonprofits and for public understanding of childhood cancers.
"In the United States in 2019, an estimated 11,060 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed among children from birth to 14 years, and about 1,190 children are expected to die from the disease. Although cancer death rates for this age group have declined by 65 percent from 1970 to 2016, cancer remains the leading cause of death from disease among children," according to the federal government's National Cancer Institute.
"If it hasn’t affected you, it’s not pretty, so people don’t want to know about it," said Nicole, who urges people to donate to childhood cancer research and nonprofits, even if it's only a dollar at the supermarket checkout. "A dollar here and there can save somebody's life," she said.
Chase's older brothers, Austin and Blake, 14, understand their brother's condition while, to him, it's been a part of his life from the beginning. "They struggle with it a lot. Because they're so much older they understand the severity of it," she said.
Besides the emotional ups and downs, the Gilchrist family also needs to be well-organized to address Chase's health. "My calendar on my phone is my best friend for sure," Nicole said.
Four months ago, yet another brother, Bentley, joined the household. Gilchrist owns the TCBY frozen yogurt store in the Crispin Square shopping plaza on North Maple Avenue in Marlton. Her husband, Scott, 41, a special agent investigator for the U.S. Justice Department, also grew up in Marlton and went to King's Christian School.
Chase's latest relapse will mean more upheaval than ever for the family.
He's had three rounds of radiation treatments, about 100 days total. Any more would cause brain damage, Nicole said. He went through six months of chemotherapy and relapsed six months later.
"We're pretty much left with clinical trials," she said, adding that experimental treatment that could kill the cancer or slow it down. Last week, Chase's oncologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia compiled his treatment history and sent it to clinical trial hospitals.
These trials are in immunotherapy, which hasn't been tried with Chase. The Gilchrists are most interested in a trial program in Seattle where Chase's stem cells would be reprogrammed in the lab to attack tumors as Chase's "personal army," Nicole explained.
Nicole and Bentley would move with Chase to Seattle for two months. Scott and the older boys would stay at home in Marlton.
Nicole said she hopes her husband's federal health insurance coverage will cover the treatment because it has covered most to this point. However, there would be travel and living costs in Seattle.
"You don't know what it's like to have a child who's not going to be able to grow up," Nicole explained. "We need to plan a lifetime of memories into some undetermined period of time."
