Just three days after learning he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 20-year-old UF student Bryno Gay wanted to run in a 5K charity race.
While his friends convinced him to take it easy that day, it was that mindset that prompted Gay’s friend and housemate Nico Sayavedra to launch a “Helping Bryno Beat Lymphoma” Facebook group the following week to raise money for Gay and to provide a place for people to provide emotional support for him through comments.
People have donated about $2,000 since Sayavedra started the Web page on Feb. 8. It has 841 members.
Some donations have come from Gay’s friends while others have come from people who didn’t know him personally but were touched by his story.
Gay has Stage 3 lymphoma. His fiancée, Tina Diem Tham Nguyen, noticed a lump on his throat last fall, and he had a biopsy in January, Sayavedra said. He was surprised when Gay told him about his diagnosis, partly because Gay had always been dedicated to eating healthy and exercising.
“I was devastated. I ended up giving him a hug and crying, but I was trying not to do that,” Sayavedra said. “I wanted to stay strong.”
Gay’s treatments may cost between $200,000 and $250,000, but his insurance may not cover all expenses, in which case Gay may have to pay between $15,000 and $45,000 for medical treatments, Sayavedra said.
A greater financial strain Gay faces is the need to pay back some of his student grants because he isn’t a full-time student this semester, having taken medical leave after his diagnosis. While UF isn’t making him pay for his I. Douglas Turner grant, Sayavedra hopes donations will help Gay pay the other grant costs back.
Gay is facing 12 chemotherapy treatments, spaced two weeks apart. He has already completed two.
Gay is a member of the Southern Scholarship Foundation, a Florida-based group that provides housing for financially needy students. There are five of these houses at UF, and Gay lives with Sayavedra and fourteen other students in one of them.
The organization has been very supportive of Gay, donating 80 percent of the proceeds from their annual “Date and Cake” auction, where they auction a variety of desserts and many students as “dates,” to his medical costs. So far, they have raised $1,100 for Gay.
The SSF is also letting Gay continue to live in the organization house through the fall, although normally the SSF requires that all students living in its houses must be full-time students.
Gay’s friends visit him often when he is at Shands Hospital. His roommate, James Welch, comes to see him almost every day that he’s there.
“I love him like a brother, and I wasn’t going to let him go through this by himself,” Welch said.
The fundraising efforts for Gay have caught the attention of many, including Jamal Sowell, special assistant to UF President Bernie Machen and a former UF student body president. Sowell wants to discuss potential fundraising options for Gay, and Sayavedra hopes to meet with him this week.
With more than $3,000 raised for Gay in a month-and-a-half, Sayavedra hopes to see that total grow.
Those interested in helping Gay can visit the “Helping Bryno Beat Lymphoma” Facebook page or by donating at helpbrynobeatlymphoma.chipin.com.
