Ezekiel’s Story

More than a decade before cancer entered their lives, Ezekiel’s family made a decision that reshaped their future. In 2012, they left the United States and moved to the Philippines with their six children, following a calling that had grown quietly but steadily over time.

Ezekiel’s father, Anthony had been born there, and the country already held deep meaning for their family. While living in the U.S., they had adopted four sons from the Philippines, and each visit back strengthened their connection to the community and the needs they were seeing.

While volunteering at local orphanages, they began noticing something that stayed with them. At busy intersections, young boys would approach their car asking for food or offering to wash windshields for spare change. Many of them were teenagers who had slipped through every safety net available to them. They had few opportunities ahead and very little support.

Instead of driving past, the family started stopping to talk with them. They brought food, listened to their stories, and asked about their hopes for the future. Those conversations eventually led them to open their home.

In 2013, they founded Mercy House, a home for boys who had been living on the streets. More than ten years later, the orphanage continues to provide safety, stability, and opportunity for young men who might otherwise be left to navigate life alone.

Ezekiel grew up in the middle of that work. Adopted as a toddler and living with Down syndrome, he became part of the big, busy household that formed around the orphanage. Life was full, purposeful, and rooted in caring for others.

Ezekiel’s Diagnosis

In late May of 2024, Ezekiel’s mother, Nikki began noticing small changes that didn’t feel quite right. He was unusually tired and sleeping far more than usual. Soon after, small red spots began appearing on his skin.

At first she suspected anemia and tried supplements and other simple changes, hoping his energy would return. But when he didn’t improve, she contacted a pediatric hematologist in a nearby town.

On July 2, 2024, their lives changed in an instant.

Ezekiel had leukemia.

His white blood cell count was dangerously high, and doctors warned that the first few days would be critical. He was admitted immediately and began treatment right away. Those early hours were a blur of fear, questions, and decisions that had to be made quickly.

Chemotherapy helped stabilize him, but the road ahead was not straightforward. After several months of treatment, tests showed that leukemia was still present in his blood. While many children respond well in the early phases of therapy, Ezekiel’s leukemia was not clearing the way doctors had hoped.

His parents made the difficult decision to leave the Philippines and travel to the United States so he could receive treatment options that were not available overseas.

Within days of arriving, Ezekiel was admitted to UNC in Chapel Hill. Immunotherapy there succeeded where chemotherapy had struggled. Within about thirty days, he entered remission, and in January of 2025 he received CAR-T cell therapy. Today, more than a year later, he remains in deep remission.

Ezekiel approaches the hospital in his own way. For him, clinic days often mean cartoons, snacks, therapy dogs, and a stop at Bojangles afterward. Those small routines have helped make something difficult feel manageable.

Nikki & Anthony

For Ezekiel’s parents, the diagnosis brought an emotional shift they had never expected. For years they had lived in the role of helping others, creating stability for children who had none. Suddenly they were the ones facing uncertainty and needing help.

In the first days after diagnosis, Nikki remembers feeling overwhelmed and disoriented, as though everything familiar had suddenly disappeared. She described it as feeling like she was floating in the middle of the ocean without anything to grab onto.

In the weeks that followed, she began reading medical research late into the night, trying to understand treatments and options that had once felt completely outside her world. She learned quickly that when one therapy doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean hope is gone. Medicine is constantly evolving, and sometimes the next treatment is the one that changes everything.

There were moments when that hope felt fragile. One early immunotherapy caused such a severe reaction that Ezekiel had to be moved to intensive care, leaving his parents terrified they were running out of options. When another treatment finally succeeded and brought him into remission, the relief was immense.

Throughout it all, they tried to carry the emotional weight themselves while keeping the experience as light as possible for Ezekiel. Because of his developmental differences, he doesn’t fully grasp the seriousness of the illness. That has meant much of the fear and decision-making has fallen to his parents to carry quietly while allowing him to experience the hospital as simply another place where people care for him.

Finding Unexpected Support

Returning to the United States for treatment created another set of challenges. Ezekiel’s parents had spent more than a decade living at the orphanage without drawing salaries. Their life in the Philippines was sustainable within the structure of the ministry, but a sudden medical relocation to the U.S. was never part of the plan. They were able to stay with family, but many practical needs quickly surfaced, including reliable transportation for regular trips between Charlotte and Chapel Hill for treatment.

It was during one of those clinic visits that Nikki met Scott with the InVINCEable Foundation. Scott, who was in clinic with his son Vince, started sharing about the foundation and the work they were doing to support families in the middle of treatment. What stood out immediately to her was how personal the approach felt. Instead of directing families to a website or an application portal, he simply introduced himself and asked what their family needed. For Ezekiel’s family, that question came at exactly the right time.

The foundation helped cover major car repairs so they could continue traveling safely to appointments and assisted with travel costs so that Anthony could return to the Philippines to check on the orphanage and their children who remained there.

She mentioned what meant the most was the way the support was offered. Instead of limiting help to one type of expense, the foundation focused on what the family truly needed in that moment.

For a family who had spent years caring for others, accepting help was not easy at first. But over time, it became a reminder that even families who are used to being the helpers sometimes need someone to step in and stand beside them.

Today, Ezekiel continues regular follow-up care while the family moves forward one step at a time. His remission remains strong, and like many families who have walked this road, they carry both gratitude and cautious hope for the future.

For them, the support they received along the way became bright lights during an uncertain season and a reminder of how powerful it can be when someone simply asks, What do you need right now?