Friends Rally Around Los Gatos Restaurateur to Help Him Beat Cancer

Well known Los Gatos restaurateur Tommy Jillo, co-owner of Gardino's and Chicago Steak and Fish, was diagnosed with cancer last year and has exhausted treatment options at UCSF and Cedars-Sinai, his close friends are reporting.

The only option he has left, according to friend Melissa Preston, is a treatment called PRRT in Bad Berka, Germany that is costly and not covered by insurance.

Preston and a group of Jillo's friends have rallied behind him to raise the money for this treatment while keeping his family out of financial peril.

They are using an online funding tool called rally.org to help the popular business owner raise the money he needs through contributions from the community he's been generous with for the past 20-plus years, Preston said.

"Now is the time for us to return the favor," Preston said in an email to Los Gatos Patch asking for help in publicizing the effort.

The rally.org website has a page dedicated to the fundraising efforts to help Jillo. It has information about his background and his close ties to Los Gatos. 

As a young man, "Chef Tommy" came to town and opened Gardino's and Chicago, the page states.

Over the past two decades, whether financially, with food, or just a shoulder to lean on, Jillo has taken the whole of Los Gatos in as his family all the while raising three boys on his own, the page states.