There will be a fund raiser to help the Hoovers with medical costs associated with Chase’s care.

What: Bowl-a-Thon fund raiser for Chase Hoover

When: 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19

Where: Woodside Lanes, 8525 Radio Road, Naples

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES —Chase Hoover is, in many ways, a typical 18-year-old.

He loves hunting, camping and fishing. He loves fast food. He loves a girl named Brittney, whom he text messages frequently.

But while Chase’s friends are sitting in class on a Thursday afternoon, Chase is lying in a hospital bed at Lee Memorial Children’s Hospital, a needle in his back, spinal fluid dripping into glass vials collected by his doctor.

The vials will be tested to make sure the cancer coursing through Chase’s bone marrow hasn’t made it into his spine.

Chase has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is a form of cancer of the white blood cells. with this type of leukemia, malignant white blood cells continuously multiply and are overproduced in the bone marrow. it causes damage and death by crowding out normal cells in the bone marrow, and by spreading into other organs.

Chase was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 15.

“It was April 30, 2007,” Chase’s mother, Dodi Hoover, remembers. “We had a huge party for (oldest son Austin) because he was home from this first deployment in Iraq. but Chase had been showing symptoms three months before. He had aches and pains, bruising. He had jaw pain, but we thought that came from getting his braces tightened.”

Hoover said she was cleaning the hot tub on that spring evening when she heard screaming from inside the house.

“Chase said it felt like his bones were being crushed,” she said.

She drove him to the hospital where he underwent bone scans, ultrasounds and other tests to determine what it was. When the Hoovers were told it was leukemia, Hoover said she couldn’t muster a positive attitude.

“I thought he was going to die,” Dodi Hoover said. “I was scared to death. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I am going to lose my baby.’”

“I thought he was going to die,” she said. “I was scared to death. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I am going to lose my baby.’”

But doctors quickly alleviated her fears. This type of leukemia is 80 percent curable in children. All Chase needed was to receive chemotherapy, which he did through a port in his chest once a week and then, once every two weeks. He took chemotherapy every night in pill form, too.

“It’s the most common cancer we see in children,” said Craig Macarthur, Chase’s pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Lee Memorial. “And it is very treatable.”

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After almost three years of treatment, Chase was feeling good. He was a senior at Palmetto Ridge High School in Golden Gate Estates. He was healthy.

A large green ribbon with the words “Chase Life” were tattooed on his leg, something he got when he turned 17 and entered the second and final year of his treatment.

“It’s my trademark,” he said. “The ribbon is supposed to be orange, but green is my favorite color.”

But it wouldn’t last. Chase was at a party several weeks ago when his back “spazzed out.”

“I could not walk or talk, I was in so much pain,” he said.

The next morning, still in pain, Chase went to the emergency room. there, the family received the bad news.

The cancer was back and this time, it affected 85 percent of his bone marrow and, without a bone marrow transplant, Chase’s chance of survival was slim.

“An early relapse is not good because it means the cancer is becoming chemo resistant. That means that it is pretty impossible to cure with chemo alone,” oncologist Craig Macarthur said.

“An early relapse is not good because it means the cancer is becoming chemo resistant. That means that it is pretty impossible to cure with chemo alone,” Macarthur said.

Chase is pragmatic about the new diagnosis.

“There are lot of ways I can feel about it, but there is one way I can deal with it. I can buck up and try not to freak out,” he said.

Hoover said her son is “mentally tough” about his diagnosis and his treatment. she said sometimes she worries when her son talks about doing things like camping and hunting when he is going through his treatments, but said she understands why he needs to keep living his life.

“It gives him something to look forward to so he doesn’t think about this,” she said.

Instead, when Chase talks about the cancer relapsing and his future — and there is a future when he talks — he talks about the disappointment of having to give up a good job cleaning pools. He talks about the months he will have to spend in the hospital when he receives a bone marrow transplant and how he will miss his girlfriend.

He also has dropped out of high school, although he plans to go back, while he goes through treatment and in preparation to spend three months in the hospital while he receives a transplant.

“It’s hard to predict how I will feel (going through chemotherapy),” Chase Hoover said. “When you have a geometry class or a world history class, missing one day is hard. When you have to miss three weeks, or more, and try to get back to that, it is impossible.”

“It’s hard to predict how I will feel (going through chemotherapy),” he said. “When you have a geometry class or a world history class, missing one day is hard. When you have to miss three weeks, or more, and try to get back to that, it is impossible.”

Doctors began talking to the Hoovers about a bone marrow transplant for Chase, testing his brothers — Austin, 23, and Jerred, 20 — to see if they would be a match. Siblings have a one in four chance of being a match, according to Macarthur.

The boys came to the hospital and were tested. When testing to see if the marrow is a match, doctors look for a donor who matches their patient’s tissue type, specifically their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. HLAs are proteins — or markers — found on most cells in the body, according to BetheMatch.org, a nonprofit organization that seeks to find matches for patients who need bone marrow nationwide.

One’s immune system uses these markers to recognize which cells belong in the body and which don’t. the closer the match between the patient’s HLA markers and the donor’s, the better for the patient, according to the website.

Then came the waiting, more than two weeks’ worth, while tests were run to see if either brother is a match. if not, Chase would have to look for an unrelated donor, since parents are typically not a match to their children.

She sent the text messages out Tuesday.

“Jerred is a complete match for Chase yippee & thank you Jesus for answered prayer!!!!” Dodi Hoover wrote in a text message

“Jerred is a complete match for Chase yippee & thank you Jesus for answered prayer!!!!” Dodi Hoover wrote.

The message is good news for Chase.

According to Macarthur, Chase’s best chance at survival is if his brother is a match for a bone marrow transplant.

“There are fewer complications than with an unrelated donor,” he said. “With an unrelated donor, there is an increased chance of toxicity, increased risk of failure, increased risk of graft vs. host disease. the chances of survival with a sibling match are 60 percent, compared to 40 percent to 50 percent with an unrelated donor. He would have a less than 25 percent chance if we treated his condition with chemo alone.”

The news means that after the new year, Chase will receive a bone marrow transplant. Doctors want him to finish this course of chemotherapy treatment before starting to work the transplant.

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When it finally happens, the transplant will require Chase to be in the hospital for about three months, including a month in isolation as he receives chemotherapy and maybe radiation to kill the rest of his bone marrow so that when his brother’s marrow is introduced to his system, cancer cells will not infect it.

“It’s a bit like having a lawn full of weeds,” Macarthur said. “You want to make sure they are all gone before you put down the seed to grow.”

Macarthur said the typical treatment for Chase would be to have chemotherapy and radiation to kill his bone marrow. then, doctors will take bone marrow from his brother and give it to Chase through an IV.

This weekend, Chase was trying to take his mind off of his illness. He went to the Redneck Yacht Club in Charlotte County for a weekend of camping and hanging out with his girlfriend and friends.

“Once I really get into the treatment, it is all downhill,” he said. “My immune system is going to suck. I am not going to be able to do what I want to do.”