Joseph's Story

Joseph's Story "Wings of Eagles" was founded in June of '93 in memory of Joseph Alvarez, who died on January 28, 1991, of a very rare and terminal form of cancer, leukemia with a Philadelphia Chromosome.
Joseph's mother, Georgia Alvarez, had been taking Joseph to the doctor for six months prior to his diagnosis. Every visit during those six months came to the same conclusion: There was nothing wrong with Joseph. Although his symptoms consisted of low-grade fevers, swollen abdomen, difficulty during urination, night sweats and headaches, his pediatrician thought his symptoms added up to nothing more than the flu.
In the summer of '89, the Alvarez family had a change in insurance. Their pediatrician was no longer on their plan, so they switched physicians and made Joseph's next appointment with a different doctor in Chico, California, at a well-known medical group. The same story was told and the same symptoms were relayed to the doctor. But this time the results were very different. The doctor told Georgia and Joseph that he didn't know what was wrong with Joseph, but scheduled a blood test for Joseph to take, just to make sure nothing serious was wrong with him.
The blood was drawn early the next morning at the group's lab and the day advanced as planned getting ready for school, which was to start in less than two weeks. Joseph was tired and cranky all day, so the plans for shopping were shortened. Early that warm summer evening, Georgia received the call that would change her and her family's lives forever. The doctor called at 6:20 p.m. to let them know that Joseph had leukemia and he was to be taken to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento immediately. When the Alvarez's arrived that night at the Medical Center, Joseph's blood was drawn again to make sure no mistakes were made. There was no mistakeÑJoseph had leukemia. The doctors at U.C. Davis told the Alvarez's that if Joseph had not been diagnosed when he was, he would have been dead within a week. Joseph was diagnosed August 11, 1989.
Less than a month passed before the doctors at Davis told the Alvarez's that Joseph had a rare and terminal form of leukemia and would not live without a bone marrow transplant. The entire family was tested and Joseph's younger sister, Mary, was a match. She was to be Joseph's bone marrow donor, at the age of six.
Joseph received his transplant at Stanford Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, CA. Joseph had a very rough stay and was hospitalized for over 2 months, and had to live near the hospital for two more months. Joseph stayed in remission for ten months, but relapsed on September 17, 1990. He died 4 months later.
But during Joseph's seventeen months of illness, the Alvarez family received overwhelming financial and emotional support from the Nord community and surrounding areas. Joseph never went without anything he needed and the Alvarez family bills were always paid by the generosity of people they didn't even know.
Since the inception of "Wings", over $1,000,000.00 has been raised to help children in Northern California who have various forms of serious, life-threatening illnesses, with preference given to pediatric cancer cases. Hundreds of families who have a child with a serious illness have been served by "Wings", relieving their financial and emotional burdens. "Wings of Eagles" is an all-denominational, nonprofit public benefit corporation that is run 100% by volunteers and has minimal administrative costs. All funds raised directly benefit families who have seriously ill children.