Most of you are area of my son Tomas’ fight with leukemia. He was in treatment for over three years; daily chemo, 23 spinal taps, a couple times we almost lost him. He finished treatment on 9 November 2010. While he was in treatment he formed a team; ‘Team Tomas’ that many of you have contributed to. He and his younger sister have raised over $55,000.00 USD in search of a one pill cure.
Today he was recognized with the Prudential Spirit of Community Award. Each year Prudential and the National Association of Secondary School Principals recognize 102 students from each state and the District of Columbia. It breaks down to one middle school and one high school student from each state.
The link will take you to the Honoree Search page, from there go to Virginia 2014; Tomas Nichols.
In a way, I am honestly not surprised that he was selected for such a recognition. Tomas has been an inspiration to myself, and I know he inspired many others.
I have not had the chance to walk with Team Tomas during a Light the Night fundraiser, but it’s been a great pleasure to see his courage and commitment to others.
It’s been great hearing nothing but good news about Tomas since I can remember now. This only adds to the testament of what can be and why you can never give up until the end. Doesn’t always pan out as we all well know, but it sure can and when it does it’s got to be a joy like no other. Rattled you to the core no doubt, but he made it and now he’s doing good in the community. Maybe in the end it will have somehow been worth the steep price of admission.
They held the event last weekend in D.C. Tomas said that it was right up there with when he finished treatment. In the below link, there are also links to his interview and radio announcement:
She is doing well, thanks for asking. She finished her sophomore year with straight A’s except advanced calculus, she ended up with a D+. The calculus is for NROTC not her major. She is still sitting at number 2 or 3 in her unit. She has orders to report to Yokosuka for a two week cruise to Hong Kong.
Long overdue update on Tomas. He is going to be a senior in high school next month, he is the Drum Major of the school’s Marching Band. He also is on the Lacrosse Team. Two months ago he was certified as an EMT in Virginia (only 2 students were certified out of a class of 43), in January when he turns 18 he will be able to get certified nationwide. He plans on going to the University of Pittsburgh and get a degree in Nursing.
Update on her… She graduated/Commissioned from GWU in 2016. She reported to her first ship the USS John P Murtha before it was commissioned…she’s a plank owner. She spent 2 years on that ship in San Diego, picked up SWO in 11 months. She was promoted to LtJG in May 2018 on the ship, I flew out there and pinned on her bars…actually got in uniform for that, first time in uniform since 2002. She is now stationed on the USS Donald Cook in Rota Spain, same place where I taught her how to ride a bike in 1998.
The Navy picked her for Department Head on the first look last month.
Thank you for the updates. Love reading things like this. It really does help balance out all of the other stuff and you deserve to be a very proud father.
Outstanding news on both young’uns. Please pass on my respects to both. That’s pretty to make department head and SWO that quick.
Is Tomas thinking about a career in EMS? If so, he’ll definitely need to get his Paramedic. Please tell him good luck on his National Registry exam. Study the crap out of A&P, pharm and cardiology. Those are the three that seem to eliminate most applicants.
He wants to do nursing, his intent right now is to attend the University of Pittsburgh. He does plan on taking the National Registry exam a few months after he turns 18.
S/A, this is Tomas’ final year for the Light The Night Fredericksburg. He needs about $200 in donations to make it $100,000 that he set for before he graduates high school. That being said, he made his goal for this year but Anna…his Lieutenant hasn’t. She wanted to wait until he met his goal for this year before she officially ‘joined the team’,
If anyone feels inclined to help Tomas in his “one pill cure”, please donate to Anna’s page:
Thank you to everyone who has supported this team and me through this wonderful journey. I’m so happy to say that we have reached and surpassed our goal for this year! This also means that the team has raised over $100,000 towards helping patients with blood cancers. I couldn’t be more proud of the work that the team has done.
