Please Help the Janowicz Family

Dear friends and family,

Please consider helping the Janowicz family pay their medical bills and support their 1-year old daughter while Steven Janowicz fights cancer! Read the full story below for more information on why we have a ton of hope and optimism for Steve, Kat, and Sydney - and why your help will be so important to our family.

On the day before Thanksgiving, the Janowicz family received some horrifying news: Steven Janowicz, husband to Kat and father to Sydney, had a large, cancerous tumor growing in his pancreas. Plus, it had already spread to his liver and spleen. It initially seemed that he may have late-stage pancreatic cancer, and would be facing insurmountable odds.

Steve and the medical team had only discovered the tumors after Steve had been experiencing a few weeks filled with some frightening moments of what seemed like panic attacks, confusion, memory mixups and dissociation. It turns out that these episodes were driven by critically low glucose levels impacted by the tumors.

Thankfully, only a week after the initial hospitalization, the family received some much welcome good news: The biopsy results showed that it was not late-stage malignant pancreatic cancer, as had been initially suspected, but a neuroendocrine tumor (also known as NETS). This kind of tumor generally brings with it a high survival rate, especially in comparison to metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Steven was also able to visit Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for a second opinion and deeper testing. With MSK’s support, Steve’s current plan (as of writing this on 12/16/22) is to undergo major surgery in mid-January 2023, in which the surgeons will hopefully be able to remove most of the tumor from Steve’s pancreas and spleen, and possibly some of it from the liver. Steve will also be undergoing hormone therapy to help stop growth in the liver and raise glucose levels so he is more stable (Steve has been keeping sugary items like fruit juice and yogurt by his side at all times, even waking up in the middle of the night to eat and ensure his levels are stable - not very sustainable for a parent of a toddler, but necessary for now!) Steve is also still going to undergo more testing to help determine what type of chemo/therapy/radiation may be needed to attack what’s left of the tumor after surgery.

Needless to say, medical bills are already beginning to pile up. Steve and Kat are going to be traveling back and forth to appointments in NYC. They are doing their very best to juggle this fight along with their jobs and taking care of Sydney Bean. Any amount you can offer is truly, truly appreciated. Happy holidays to all and please keep the Janowicz family in your prayers. Thank you.