--- title: How This Cancer Patient Raised $144,000 description: 1 Set a goal When Rick Thomas, a 46-year-old commercial-airline pilot, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer in February, he knew he couldn't afford the $125,000 treatment cost. Then his... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6642846/how-this-cancer-patient-raised-144000/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-12-03T05:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T16:28:38.721Z article:section: Health og:title: How This Cancer Patient Raised $144,000 og:description: 1 Set a goal When Rick Thomas, a 46-year-old commercial-airline pilot, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer in February, he knew he couldn't afford the $125,000 treatment cost. Then his... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6642846/how-this-cancer-patient-raised-144000/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How This Cancer Patient Raised $144,000 twitter:description: 1 Set a goal When Rick Thomas, a 46-year-old commercial-airline pilot, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer in February, he knew he couldn't afford the $125,000 treatment cost. Then his... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # How This Cancer Patient Raised $144,000 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) Dec 3, 2012 5:00 AM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) Dec 3, 2012 5:00 AM UTC 1 Set a goal When Rick Thomas, a 46-year-old commercial-airline pilot, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer in February, he knew he couldn’t afford the $125,000 treatment cost. Then his sister Annie Howell suggested they create a page on GoFundMe, a crowdfunding site. “We had never asked anything of anybody,” she says, “but that was the time.” 2 Target plausible donors She knew she would have a tough time getting total strangers to donate. So to promote her brother’s cause, she initially sent links to friends and family members, who sent links to their friends and family and so on. “All of us posted it on social media,” Howell says, “and people started coming out of the woodwork.” 3 Get personal In order to involve donors in the treatment process, she uploaded personal details about her brother, including a photo of him with his wife and three kids, and posted frequent reports about his health. “Don’t know you, but I am thinking about you, praying for you,” one donor wrote. 4 Say thank you It took just two months to raise $144,000 from 1,583 donors–more than enough to pay for treatment. “We appreciate the support,” Howell posted in a message to donors, whom she still updates about her brother’s recovery. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642846/how-this-cancer-patient-raised-144000/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6642846/how-this-cancer-patient-raised-144000/"},"headline":"How This Cancer Patient Raised $144,000","datePublished":"2012-12-03T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T16:28:38.721Z","description":"1 Set a goal When Rick Thomas, a 46-year-old commercial-airline pilot, was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer in February, he knew he couldn't afford the $125,000 treatment cost. 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