LAVAL, Que. -- Matthew Schreindorfer says he began feeling ill after returning from his honeymoon in the Caribbean last June.

The 25-year-old, who says he never gets sick, suddently had a sore throat, fever and abdominal pains.

"He was in great shape, he never even needed to get blood tests," said his wife, Katia Luciani. "He's so strong, we thought that he just caught a virus."

On Aug. 7, two months after his wedding, Schreindorfer discovered what had originally been diagnosed as mononucleosis was actually acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

"It was a total shock," said Luciani. "One day, we're on top of the world and the next day, our world had changed completely."

While the diagnosis was not good, the survival rate for Schreindorfer's disease is around 80%. Doctors were confident that chemotherapy would be effective. However, after three rounds of treatment, they realized that his cancer was not responding to treatment.

"After the first biopsy, we had another shock," said Luciani.

In December and January, different treatments were tried. None worked. Now, the couple is hoping to go to New York to take part in clinical trials of a promising new treatment. But to secure an appointment, they must raise $800,000.

The new treatment has so far show remission rates of up to 90%. Administered at New York's Sloan Kettering Institute, it involves taking the patient's own while blood cells and altering them with an engineered virus. The cells are then reinjected into the patient and attack the leukemia cells.

As of Saturday, the family had raised over $164,000 via a crowdsourcing page, and the couple has been trying to increase their mortgage to fund Schreindorfer's treatment. But Luciani knows that they're in a race against time.

"He doesn't really stand a chance without treatment," she said. "I can't believe how kind people are."