Will Ross vs Cancer: A Brave Fight
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Will chose to be happy despite losing his health and finally his life.
The photo of Will, above, was taken in February 2015, and by that time, he knew his life would end soon. He fought hard against his cancer, but even more, he fought to stay positive and to focus on the happiness of each day, rather than brood over his approaching death. He also fought against the despair of knowing he was leaving his family with $40,000 in medical expenses which we had paid using home equity loans.
Will's personal motto was "Calm, Courageous, Compassionate," which he shortened to "CCC." He lived by these words with the help of a form of cognitive behavior therapy, REBT, developed by famed psychologist Albert Ellis. Will's life work was to train and coach people in using REBT to live with happiness and reason. He did much of this for free, assisting anyone who needed help, through personal consultations, online psychology forums, and YouTube videos such as this one:
Will also assisted Dr. Ellis in the last years of his life as a personal friend. After Dr. Ellis's death in 2007, Will wrote several books about using REBT to remain serene and content despite all of life's challenges. Little did he know when he wrote them how much he would need their wisdom for his own battle with cancer.
Will died on June 28, 2015, at the age of 59, after more than seven years battling neuroendocrine carcinoid cancer (the same cancer that took Steve Jobs’s life.) It originated in his large intestine, but by the time it was diagnosed, it had already metastasized to his liver. We knew that tumors would eventually overrun his liver and cause liver failure. We just weren’t expecting it so soon.
We had health insurance all along, but deductibles and 20% coinsurance can easily add up to $10,000 in a given year, and several years, it did. Will had a colon resection, a liver resection, a small intestine resection, several different courses of radiation, including Y90 bead therapy delivered directly into both lobes of his liver through his femoral artery, monthly injections of a drug called Sandostatin, and four different courses of chemotherapy. Surgery and radiation helped most, but the tumors were relentless and always came back more aggressively.
We lived on my income as a special education teacher. In an attempt to address our mounting medical bills, I left the public school system to earn more money at a year-round online high school in 2011. This school awarded me an “educator of the year” award in 2012. After many excellent reviews, I was told in March 2015 that my performance was deficient and I would be put on an improvement plan. Why? Because by then, Will was so sick that I had taken most of January and February off and could not keep up with the expectations. I responded to their insensitivity by resigning. I’m glad now that I did. We couldn't know how little time Will had left, and I was fortunate to spend his last months with him fulltime.
I will find another job, and will pay off the home equity loan over time. If I can't manage that, I'll sell my house to repay the bank. Realistically, as I approach retirement, paying off a $40,000 home equity loan will be difficult. Any help offered would be gratefully accepted. Here are several options you could consider:
1. Will's self-help booklets on REBT (rational-emotive behavior therapy) can help anyone to look more realistically at their problems while avoiding panic and needless anguish. His books can be downloaded from Amazon as Kindle files and can be read on any device with a Kindle app. Here is the link to his author page at Amazon: www.amazon.com/Will-Ross/e/B007IDX9U0 and to his signature book, Shameless Happiness, which is also available in paperback: www.amazon.com/Shameless-Happiness-Rational-Emotive-Behavior-ebook/dp/B007I8N4K0 His books are clear, brief and readable, and purchasing one or more of them will not only help you or someone you know, but will help us, too.
Will practiced what he preached. He used this therapy to remain sane during his last months, though he knew the end was approaching. He wrote out his irrational thoughts and then disputed their accuracy on a self-help form which he developed and posted at his website: http://www.rebtnetwork.org/library/shf.html You may wish to try using it, yourself.
2. If the spirit moves you, I would thankfully accept a donation of any amount to this GoFundMe account.
3. Please consider reposting, re-tweeting, or otherwise helping publicize this appeal. Thank you in advance!
4. Finally, PLEASE consider voting for political candidates who support repairing the broken US healthcare system. If you’re very sick, your family could endure huge annual deductibles and coinsurance which exceed tens of thousands of dollars in a very short time, and often lead to medical bankruptcy. Forced out of my job, I had no insurance for my family, but we accessed individual insurance through the Healthcare Marketplace (Obamacare.) Though expensive and imperfect, it was still better than no insurance at all. But the US could do even better with Medicare for all.
Will spent the last month of his life in Australia, where most of his relatives live. During this time, all his medical care, drugs, hospice nurses, and hospital bed were either free or had incredibly low co-pays ($3.40 per day for visits from hospice nurses, for example.) Everything else was paid for through Australia’s Medicare system. The US can and should do the same for its ill and vulnerable citizens.
Thank you for reading this and considering these requests! I miss Will every minute, but I try to live by his motto, "Calm, Courageous, Compassionate." I feel proud and privileged to share his story.
Cynthia Ross
The photo of Will, above, was taken in February 2015, and by that time, he knew his life would end soon. He fought hard against his cancer, but even more, he fought to stay positive and to focus on the happiness of each day, rather than brood over his approaching death. He also fought against the despair of knowing he was leaving his family with $40,000 in medical expenses which we had paid using home equity loans.
Will's personal motto was "Calm, Courageous, Compassionate," which he shortened to "CCC." He lived by these words with the help of a form of cognitive behavior therapy, REBT, developed by famed psychologist Albert Ellis. Will's life work was to train and coach people in using REBT to live with happiness and reason. He did much of this for free, assisting anyone who needed help, through personal consultations, online psychology forums, and YouTube videos such as this one:
Will also assisted Dr. Ellis in the last years of his life as a personal friend. After Dr. Ellis's death in 2007, Will wrote several books about using REBT to remain serene and content despite all of life's challenges. Little did he know when he wrote them how much he would need their wisdom for his own battle with cancer.
Will died on June 28, 2015, at the age of 59, after more than seven years battling neuroendocrine carcinoid cancer (the same cancer that took Steve Jobs’s life.) It originated in his large intestine, but by the time it was diagnosed, it had already metastasized to his liver. We knew that tumors would eventually overrun his liver and cause liver failure. We just weren’t expecting it so soon.
We had health insurance all along, but deductibles and 20% coinsurance can easily add up to $10,000 in a given year, and several years, it did. Will had a colon resection, a liver resection, a small intestine resection, several different courses of radiation, including Y90 bead therapy delivered directly into both lobes of his liver through his femoral artery, monthly injections of a drug called Sandostatin, and four different courses of chemotherapy. Surgery and radiation helped most, but the tumors were relentless and always came back more aggressively.
We lived on my income as a special education teacher. In an attempt to address our mounting medical bills, I left the public school system to earn more money at a year-round online high school in 2011. This school awarded me an “educator of the year” award in 2012. After many excellent reviews, I was told in March 2015 that my performance was deficient and I would be put on an improvement plan. Why? Because by then, Will was so sick that I had taken most of January and February off and could not keep up with the expectations. I responded to their insensitivity by resigning. I’m glad now that I did. We couldn't know how little time Will had left, and I was fortunate to spend his last months with him fulltime.
I will find another job, and will pay off the home equity loan over time. If I can't manage that, I'll sell my house to repay the bank. Realistically, as I approach retirement, paying off a $40,000 home equity loan will be difficult. Any help offered would be gratefully accepted. Here are several options you could consider:
1. Will's self-help booklets on REBT (rational-emotive behavior therapy) can help anyone to look more realistically at their problems while avoiding panic and needless anguish. His books can be downloaded from Amazon as Kindle files and can be read on any device with a Kindle app. Here is the link to his author page at Amazon: www.amazon.com/Will-Ross/e/B007IDX9U0 and to his signature book, Shameless Happiness, which is also available in paperback: www.amazon.com/Shameless-Happiness-Rational-Emotive-Behavior-ebook/dp/B007I8N4K0 His books are clear, brief and readable, and purchasing one or more of them will not only help you or someone you know, but will help us, too.
Will practiced what he preached. He used this therapy to remain sane during his last months, though he knew the end was approaching. He wrote out his irrational thoughts and then disputed their accuracy on a self-help form which he developed and posted at his website: http://www.rebtnetwork.org/library/shf.html You may wish to try using it, yourself.
2. If the spirit moves you, I would thankfully accept a donation of any amount to this GoFundMe account.
3. Please consider reposting, re-tweeting, or otherwise helping publicize this appeal. Thank you in advance!
4. Finally, PLEASE consider voting for political candidates who support repairing the broken US healthcare system. If you’re very sick, your family could endure huge annual deductibles and coinsurance which exceed tens of thousands of dollars in a very short time, and often lead to medical bankruptcy. Forced out of my job, I had no insurance for my family, but we accessed individual insurance through the Healthcare Marketplace (Obamacare.) Though expensive and imperfect, it was still better than no insurance at all. But the US could do even better with Medicare for all.
Will spent the last month of his life in Australia, where most of his relatives live. During this time, all his medical care, drugs, hospice nurses, and hospital bed were either free or had incredibly low co-pays ($3.40 per day for visits from hospice nurses, for example.) Everything else was paid for through Australia’s Medicare system. The US can and should do the same for its ill and vulnerable citizens.
Thank you for reading this and considering these requests! I miss Will every minute, but I try to live by his motto, "Calm, Courageous, Compassionate." I feel proud and privileged to share his story.
Cynthia Ross
Organizer
Cynthia Ross
Organizer
Mesa, AZ
