Greetings from Mikaela & I, especially to the 200,000+ who’ve joined our team since our previous email update! At 405,000, we now outnumber our old hometown of Oakland, CA!

For both new and established #WeGotThis members, it’s essential that you join us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/savemikaela), our blog (http://shegotthis.wordpress.com/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/keithknappjr). We post regular updates and requests for help on these pages, and you’ll miss great shareable content like the #WeGotThis video (http://bit.ly/QMzfPB) if you don’t join us!

You’ll find an update on Mikaela’s health & campaign progress later in this email, but we urgently need your help:

1. Mikaela’s Million — We are working with the change.org folks on planning a day for us to deliver your petitions directly to Merck. Because doing this will require me to leave Mikaela, I want to maximize the impact by having 1,000,000 petitions to hand over. If each of you can get 1-2 of your friends or family to sign the petition, we’ll be able to hit this number easily. Please do it today; Mikaela does not have time to wait.

2. #WeGotThis shirts — Inspired by successful campaigns of the past, we are selling #WeGotThis t-shirts to help fund our campaign. They were designed by Mikaela herself and are available for $15 at http://teespring.com/mikaelaknapp. They are only available until Tuesday (April 8), so buy yours today! The petition URL is on the back of the shirt, so these will be a great way to spread the word with your local community.

3. Social Media Crew: We want to start engaging directly with Merck through their social channels, but we need your help to amplify our noise. If you’re interested in getting involved with this effort, please shoot me an email (keithknappjr@gmail.com) and I’ll add you to our #WeGotThis social media email list. You’ll be prompted to share things like ready-made tweets, so it won’t be a huge time commitment. Before you sign up, please understand that Mikaela & I value the positive tone of the campaign, and will in no way be asking you to attack these companies through their social channels; in fact, we wholeheartedly discourage it.

On to the updates:

First, Mikaela’s health — SHE’S BACK HOME! It always takes her several days to recover from a hospital stay, so she ought to be fully settled by the end of the weekend. We posted a picture of her triumphant return on the #WeGotThis Facebook page, which you should definitely be following for more regular updates than these emails — visit https://www.facebook.com/savemikaela and hit that “LIKE” button right now!

Our fundraiser (http://gfwd.at/1hTL25D) has been a success and we should have our genetic test results within 2 weeks! Thanks to all who donated and those who continue to do so!

Next, an update on our campaign: We’ve had a productive, yet unsuccessful, week of seeking entry into more clinical trials, and we now feel comfortable saying that we have lost all hope on that front. We are shifting the entirety of our efforts to arranging compassionate use with Merck.

Just to be clear, Mikaela’s return home does NOT mean that we have won access to the treatment she needs. Our oncologist had discussions with Merck this week, and they rejected our request for compassionate use. We are not giving up, and our Congressman’s office is working with Merck & the FDA to find ways to assuage their concerns.

Thanks for your continued love and support. Mikaela & I are overcome by the personal level of interest many of you have shown in our cause. Your stories of not giving up and beating cancer fuel our fight, and you’re all playing an essential part in helping us to craft a similar story of our own someday.

With hope for a great week.

#WeGotThis,
Keith