Kevin Weston hospitalized after cancer returns

Bay Area journalist Kevin Weston and his family’s brave battle against a rare form of cancer has landed the 45-year-old back in the hospital.

Beaten back by months of aggressive treatment, Weston’s cancer resurfaced in March after hopeful signs of recovery. Weston was first diagnosed in August 2012 with T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia, or “T-PLL.”

Ayoka Turner, who has helped organize and support fundraising efforts for Weston’s treatment, announced on Weston’s GoFundMe page that Weston’s health issues have increased:

“Kevin has had an increasing amount of health issues over the last two weeks that have caused him to be hospitalized. Yesterday Kevin was admitted to the hospital with an enlarged liver and spleen.”

Doctors are working to control the cancer in Weston’s blood and bone marrow enough to warrant a second transplant procedure in Seattle.

A cord blood transplant last year left Weston with a 100-percent donor immune system and no evidence of disease. But in March, Weston’s cancer returned.

Since March, Weston has received intensive chemotherapy, Turner wrote:

“The doctors are working on a plan to get him back to being stable so that he can continue on the course of chemo that he started last week. It is a new course of an experimental chemotherapy that they hope will work.”

 If you can help Weston, his wife Lateefah Simon, and daughters Lelah and Aminah, please visit their GoFundMe page to learn more.