#OperationDonnyStrong
Donation protected
Edward ( Donny) Young is a 43 year old loving son, brother, husband and father, who has the soul of a saint. He means so much to so many people and has touched so many lives. His smile is contagious and his humor will make anyone laugh. For the past ten amazing years Donny has dedicated all of his love to his amazing wife, Becky and has been an amazing father to Brian (14), Bailee (9) , Brayden (8) and Beckham (3). Donny is a family man who would do anything and everything to protect his family.
Donny served and protected our country for 23 years of his life, that would put his life in danger for others to be safe. He was apart of several deployments including training foreign military across Africa and South America over the years while serving. In August 2015, Donny decided to retire from the United States Navy as a Navy Chief. He really wanted to spend time much needed time with his wife and watch his children grow.
After Donny retired, he really enjoyed sitting on his sunporch with his two dogs at his feet, relaxing drinking his southern sweet tea. He always had a smile on his face and always had a witty comment about something. Most of all he loved being home with his family and the kids were so happy to have Daddy home. Donny was also so excited to for his favorite season...Football season where he could watch his favorite teams Alabama and Tennessee Titans.
Back in January of 2015 Donny started to suffer from mild memory loss, and doctors had no idea what could be causing it. Test after test, poke after poke, still no answers. He was cleared by the cancer doctor, infectious disease doctors and many others. The family was at a loss on what could have caused such a traumatic thing to happen to such a good man. Over the past 10 months things started to progress with his memory loss. He would forget small things and those small things would turn into life events. Still with no answers or ideas to what could be the cause of this. Donny started having extremely strong headaches to the point where he could not even open his eyes. Becky told him he needed to go to the doctor to be checked out right away to see what could be done about this. Once more it was tests and no answers. The headaches started to subside, but his memory kept slipping away. More and more people were noticing a change in his behavior and how much is electrifying personality has changed.
On Monday, October 3, 2016 the older kids went off to school like normal and the day was starting out great. Becky and her sister planned a fun day at the apple orchard. Donny was home from work and would be attending the festivities as well. Donny was sitting on the couch in a state of pain. Becky asked Donny if he was ok and he replayed that his head was hurting really badly but was ok to go. She cooked breakfast, and when he got up he lost his balance. Becky decided that it would be best for Donny to head to the emergency room right away. While in the ER doctors were boggled with what they were dealing with again. They couldn't figure out how a man who is only 43 years old had such memory loss and paralyzing headaches. They ordered a CT scan. The results came back that there was swelling on the brain and a MRI needed to be complete to see what else they could see as the CT scan wasn't clear. The results were sent over to the neurological department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Right after they were able to read his scans, Donny was transferred over to Rush by ambulance immediatly where more testing needed to be completed. Becky got on the phone immediately and called Donny's family in Alabama. Donny's family got in the car right away and drove 12 hours to see their knight in shining armor.
Donny has a rare and fatal form of brain cancer called Gliomatosis cerebri. Gliomatosis cerebri is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is extremely hard to contain or detect. Scientists are not even sure how this cancer forms or how they can contain it to stop it from spreading. Gliomatosis cerebri is also known as " A ghost in the brain"
Over the past week, the family has watched Donny go from his bubbly. go getter personality to laying in a hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines. "I just had to make the most difficult decision of my life. The neurosurgeon gave me 2 options. We can do nothing and have him slip away within a couple of weeks. Or he can have a major brain resection tomorrow and see what happens. With the surgery the best possible outcome would give us a couple of months. We decided to do the surgery because there is a chance that he could be stable enough to come home for a little while and actually see his kids.
My heart is in a million pieces." - Becky Young
Donny's family needs our help with things now and with things in the future. Please consider donating to the Young family as they really need our help.
We cannot thank you enough for all of your love, kind messages and prayers. Our hearts are full with how much love everyone has shown and given to our family. Donny would be so overjoyed with how much care everyone has for him and our family.
Donny served and protected our country for 23 years of his life, that would put his life in danger for others to be safe. He was apart of several deployments including training foreign military across Africa and South America over the years while serving. In August 2015, Donny decided to retire from the United States Navy as a Navy Chief. He really wanted to spend time much needed time with his wife and watch his children grow.
After Donny retired, he really enjoyed sitting on his sunporch with his two dogs at his feet, relaxing drinking his southern sweet tea. He always had a smile on his face and always had a witty comment about something. Most of all he loved being home with his family and the kids were so happy to have Daddy home. Donny was also so excited to for his favorite season...Football season where he could watch his favorite teams Alabama and Tennessee Titans.
Back in January of 2015 Donny started to suffer from mild memory loss, and doctors had no idea what could be causing it. Test after test, poke after poke, still no answers. He was cleared by the cancer doctor, infectious disease doctors and many others. The family was at a loss on what could have caused such a traumatic thing to happen to such a good man. Over the past 10 months things started to progress with his memory loss. He would forget small things and those small things would turn into life events. Still with no answers or ideas to what could be the cause of this. Donny started having extremely strong headaches to the point where he could not even open his eyes. Becky told him he needed to go to the doctor to be checked out right away to see what could be done about this. Once more it was tests and no answers. The headaches started to subside, but his memory kept slipping away. More and more people were noticing a change in his behavior and how much is electrifying personality has changed.
On Monday, October 3, 2016 the older kids went off to school like normal and the day was starting out great. Becky and her sister planned a fun day at the apple orchard. Donny was home from work and would be attending the festivities as well. Donny was sitting on the couch in a state of pain. Becky asked Donny if he was ok and he replayed that his head was hurting really badly but was ok to go. She cooked breakfast, and when he got up he lost his balance. Becky decided that it would be best for Donny to head to the emergency room right away. While in the ER doctors were boggled with what they were dealing with again. They couldn't figure out how a man who is only 43 years old had such memory loss and paralyzing headaches. They ordered a CT scan. The results came back that there was swelling on the brain and a MRI needed to be complete to see what else they could see as the CT scan wasn't clear. The results were sent over to the neurological department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Right after they were able to read his scans, Donny was transferred over to Rush by ambulance immediatly where more testing needed to be completed. Becky got on the phone immediately and called Donny's family in Alabama. Donny's family got in the car right away and drove 12 hours to see their knight in shining armor.
Donny has a rare and fatal form of brain cancer called Gliomatosis cerebri. Gliomatosis cerebri is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is extremely hard to contain or detect. Scientists are not even sure how this cancer forms or how they can contain it to stop it from spreading. Gliomatosis cerebri is also known as " A ghost in the brain"
Over the past week, the family has watched Donny go from his bubbly. go getter personality to laying in a hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines. "I just had to make the most difficult decision of my life. The neurosurgeon gave me 2 options. We can do nothing and have him slip away within a couple of weeks. Or he can have a major brain resection tomorrow and see what happens. With the surgery the best possible outcome would give us a couple of months. We decided to do the surgery because there is a chance that he could be stable enough to come home for a little while and actually see his kids.
My heart is in a million pieces." - Becky Young
Donny's family needs our help with things now and with things in the future. Please consider donating to the Young family as they really need our help.
We cannot thank you enough for all of your love, kind messages and prayers. Our hearts are full with how much love everyone has shown and given to our family. Donny would be so overjoyed with how much care everyone has for him and our family.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kirsten Solberg
Organizer
Zion, IL
Becky Young
Beneficiary
