Metro

‘Humans of New York’ creator turns lens to young cancer patients

The shutterbug behind a popular Big Apple-based photo blog is turning his lens toward young cancer patients–to help raise money to find a cure.

Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton has raised more than $350,000 for pediatric cancer research in three days, and he’s hoping to triple that number.

Instead of shots of everyday New Yorkers, Stanton is now featuring snaps from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan — including a third grader diagnosed with a rare brain tumor and nurses who work at the medical facility.

“Many children come to MSK when they are out of options, and new options must be invented,” Stanton wrote on Facebook. “The study of rare cancers involves small and relentless teams of researchers. Life-saving breakthroughs are made on very tight budgets. So your donations will make a difference. They may save a life.”

In just 72 hours, more than 10,000 people have donated to the fundraiser — two-thirds of which will go to backing research at the Midtown center.

“The remaining third will be used to psychologically and socially support the young patients and their families as they endure the excruciatingly difficult battle against cancer,” Stanton wrote on the IndieGoGo page.

He started the photo series Thursday on his blog, which now has more than 17.5 million followers, with Dr. Richard O’Reilly, who is the chairman of pediatrics at the center.

“All doctors have patients who sit on our shoulder,” said O’ Reilly, who is stepping down after 30 years at MSK. “I remember one patient that had red hair just like my son. And I remember one five-year-old girl who made me laugh, because when I asked her how she was doing, she told me, ‘I don’t know. You’re the doctor.’”

Stanton then shared a six-part story about one of the center’s patients, Gabe.

“Gabe was a perfectly healthy boy. He’d reached all his milestones as a child. He talked early. He walked early,” his mom said. “He never got sick except for colds.”

About two years ago, she started noticing Gabe complaining about a a “pins and needles” feeling in his mouth and she decided to go to a few doctors, one of which suggested they do an MRI just to double check that nothing serious was wrong.

“When the results came in, he asked Gabe to wait outside the room. That’s when I became scared out of my mind,” his mom said. “It was the worst possible news. The doctor said it was a tumor the size of a big olive. In the brain.”

After Gabe’s first surgery, his family thought he was in the clear, but then they found out he had the extremely rare Descmoplastic Small Round Blue Cell Tumor.

“Nobody had ever seen this tumor in the brain before. They told me not to read about it,” his mom said with tears in her eyes. “They told me that every case was different and not to read about it. When you read about it, it’s very bad. Oh my God. This cancer always comes back and when it comes back, it’s worse.”

Gabe is currently going through chemotherapy treatments at MSK.

This is Stanton’s eighth crowdfunding campaign including a $1.4 million fundraiser last year that went to scholarships and school trips to Harvard for Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville.

He also raised $760,197 for Syrian refugees restarting their lives in America and $318,530 for Hurricane Sandy victims.