Smithtown High School East senior, Matthew Gandarillas, recently walked into the Stony Brook Cancer center and donated more than $1,000 worth of gift cards and toys for children suffering from cancer. Matthew, who is a part of the National, Math and Spanish honor societies as well as a member of the varsity soccer team, spearheaded a pediatric cancer drive on his own, because it is an issue very close to him and his family. You see Matthew is a cancer survivor, himself. When Matthew was just eight months old his mother, Teresa, felt a lump on his side that turned out to be a malignant tumor on his liver. After undergoing weekly chemotherapy, plus a seven-hour surgery to remove half of his liver and entire gall bladder, Matthew was eventually declared cancer-free at the age of 5. He recently organized a pediatric cancer donation drive to provide toys and funding to help soothe children suffering from cancer and subsidize their parents’ expenses.
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