Donate to Help Big Rob Beat Leukemia

So much of what we become in life is a consequence of our circumstances and luck - "though but for the Grace of God go I".

My best friend Rob has led a tumultuous life. Adopted as an infant to a loving family who struggled to raise him, his life was torn apart when his little brother, addled on drugs, murdered his mother in cold blood in his boyhood home just before his 18th birthday. His adoptive father financially, but more important emotionally, abandoned Robert a year later, forcing Robert to go through life on his own with the exception of his friends and his loving Aunt. His finances have always been a struggle, living hand to mouth but developing the independence to maintain a job and car. In the last three years (he is now 41), his prospects much improved when he obtained health insurance managing a bar. He's the kind of loving, gregarious guy that will give you the shirt off his back.

Now he needs help, and I'm hoping this venue can come through for him. In October he underwent surgery for routine inguinal hernia; surgery was complicated but he never really felt the same after the surgery. He's been in and out of the hospital since, with fever, malaise and body aches. Because of missing work, he was let go from his job. Yesterday a lymph node biopsy was positive for lymphoma versus leukemia, and his most immediate stress is how to finance treatment. The money raised here will go towards maintaining his insurance through COBRA so that he can receive chemotherapy and also for living expenses. Thank you for any support you can provide, any amount will help.