Bay Ridge man seeks donations to pay for seventh cancer diagnosis

‘I just keep fighting and fighting’ he says

Friends of a Bay Ridge man waging his seventh bout against cancer are holding a fundraiser this week to help him pay for lifesaving medical treatments.

The fundraiser for Nick Leventis will take place on April 19 at the Hideout, 8415 Fifth Ave., from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. “Our friend Nick Leventis is facing his 7th (yes SEVENTH!) bout with cancer, and he could use our support,” a friend posted on Facebook.

Leventis, a 1991 graduate of Fort Hamilton High School, is the owner of Pearl Limousines NYC Inc. and is fighting for his life.

He has miraculously survived six previous bouts with cancer but was recently diagnosed again with cancer of the tongue and larynx.

He has started a GoFundMe page to raise $40,000 for his latest round of radiation treatments. He goes several times a week to a facility in New Jersey run by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

“It’s very hard for me. I can still talk but the cancer is on my tongue. And going back and forth to my radiation treatments takes a lot out of me. I get tired,” Leventis told this newspaper on Monday.

He is grateful for the support he is getting from family and friends. The fact that people are organizing a fundraiser at the Hideout means a great deal to him. “I appreciate it very much,” he said.

His health ordeal began 31 years ago when he was just 16 years old. He was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a form of cancer in which a tumor grows on a bone or in soft tissue.

“Just a regular boy growing up in Brooklyn, NY,  hanging out with my friends, playing ball, going to school and just having fun. Then, suddenly, at the age of 16, my world changed forever,” Leventis wrote on his GoFundMe page.

Over the years, the local native has survived lymphoma and leukemia and other forms of cancer and has bravely endured several surgeries as well as chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant.

“I just keep fighting and fighting,” he told this newspaper.

But this latest diagnosis is taking a lot out of him, he admitted.

“Through all the years, after all the treatments, after needing shoulder reconstruction, knee, and hip replacements and adapting to the loss of hearing in the right ear, I feel this recent diagnosis is going to be the most difficult yet,” he wrote on his GoFundMe page. “I have fought to overcome some very difficult obstacles in my life and I count my blessings for each one. I have never asked for any help but I am going to need financial help to assist with treatments and not being able to work so I can concentrate on my recovery while I am fighting this horrible disease again.”

At press time, the GoFundMe page had garnered nearly $15,000 in donations toward the $40,000 goal.

For more information on Leventis and his battle against cancer, visit: https://bit.ly/2v91azo.