Nicky Sorbelli has always been active.
His newest activity: fighting cancer.
Nicky, 10, was diagnosed back in May with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma, a form of cancer in which too many T-cell lymphoblasts, or immature white blood cells, are found in the blood, bone marrow and tissues.
Nicky’s mom, Jamie, 41, was in complete denial when learning of her son’s diagnosis.
“My son has been healthy his whole life and is a superstar athlete,” she said. “He plays lacrosse, he’s a paddle boarder and is a super healthy kid. They asked if he was ever on antibiotics, but he’s never been sick. It was denial because he was 100 percent healthy.”
The Sorbelli family, formerly of Dallas, currently resides in Key West, Florida, and are the owners of Wayne’s World Music on State Route 315 which is operated by family members.
The family moved to Key West in 2011, but Jamie said they will move to Miami to be closer to doctors at the Miami Children’s Hospital where Nicky will undergo intensive chemotherapy three to four days a week for the next several months.
Side effects of the chemotherapy have taken a toll on Nicky and Jamie is not used to seeing son in this condition.
“I never knew anybody close to me who’s gone through chemotherapy, so I wasn’t aware of what it does,” Jamie said “He’s had extreme weight loss, he’s nautious, has loss of appetite and he’s always fatigued.”
Despite the physical limitations, Nicky is responding to chemotherapy and the disease is currently in remission.
Finding funding for the cancer treatments has not been easy on the Sorbelli family as Jamie and Wayne are both self-employed, having opened another music store, Island Guitar, in Key West.
It was through the help of a friend that a GoFundMe site was started to help the Sorbellis. As of July 29, over $30,000 has been rasied.
“Island Guitar had to close for a bit when Nicky was diagnosed because there are no sick or vacation days when you own your own business,” Jamie said. “My friend recognized immediately that we would be in trouble fast if there wasn’t any money fast. The GoFundMe has saved us and I’m grateful for the response and how fast my friend set that up.”
Not only have friends from Key West helped but old friends from Dallas have taken action, too.
Susan Crahall, 41, of Dallas, will hold a bake sale with the help of other friends on Wednesday, Aug. 5 outside Wayne’s World Music.
She and Jamie are lifelong friends and Crahall said she and her children want to do something to help Nicky.
“We’re doing it because our children wanted to help in some way,” said Crahall. “I have two children who were friends with Nicky, so we thought our kids could help by doing a bake sale. We don’t expect to raise thousands of dollars, but it was a way for our kids to help Nicky out.”
Jamie said Nicky is humbled by the thoughts and prayers he is receiving.
“At first I didn’t know how I was going to repay everybody for the financial support, calls, letters and cards to my son,” she said. “The power of 1,000 people praying for one person at the same time is overwhelming. It makes me so emotional in gratitude. It’s a good emotion and I don’t know how to express it.”
