Brent's Battle with Leukemia
Cancer related medical bills will financially break our family.
Your gifts, prayers, and shares can make all the difference.
The time has finally come for me to humble myself and open this side of my life to public consideration.
It’s been a long road to get me here but God is capable of anything.
It’s called, “Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia” or “A.L.L.” for short and Brent needs our help.
He is a proud and humble man but this one mountain is just a bit too high to climb alone. It’s a cancer with a debilitating treatment protocol for him - and his family - but with promising results when completed.
Why should you help Brent?
Let me give you some history on Brent the man, the husband, the father, the son, and devoted and faithful friend. Brent and his wife Kim had their first date in 9th grade and dated through high school graduation. They married in 1985 and had two beautiful baby girls.
Brent was a part-time firefighter for a decade. To provide for his new and growing family, he joined another municipal fire department to meet those needs. After nine years of irregular shifts, and an environment that was outside of Brent’s personal and family values, he left to establish a landscaping company, based out of Howell, Michigan. That’s where I first met Brent and through our shared Christian faith, we became lifelong friends as well as business associates. Brent hired my company to do all of his business printing for his corporation. His landscape creations were stunning, his customers were loyal, and his employees were devoted. If you know Brent, you know why all hold him in such high esteem.
Brent is an avid fisherman, woodworker, hunter and protector of and provider for his family. Hunting is where Brent met his first major life challenge: Climbing down from a tree stand, he slipped and fell 20 feet and sustained a burst fracture of his lumbar vertebrae, which cut into his spinal cord. 12 hours on the O.R. table for a spinal cage with fusion, 2 weeks inpatient, and 6 months wearing what he calls the turtle shell, my proud and independent friend had to rely on drivers and other assistance that will test any man’s modesty.
Brent’s faith in our sovereign God has never wavered.
Since the accident and recovery, Brent earned money through part time work as a finish carpenter and all around skilled tradesman for locals throughout Leelanau County, Michigan. Faithfully, he sent monies earned to his family downstate. Again, Brent’s honesty, integrity, skill, and disposition was both his calling card and reputation – all while caring for his aged parents, both in their mid 80s. He even constructed a bird garden for his mom’s enjoyment to help her during her rough days.) He made a teak cross as a grave marker for a friend who lost two pets this year and who lacked the resources to have them cremated. Kim made it her mission to get it to the grieving family - which was no easy task! The Smiths are quality people who place others first – it is time we place Brent and his family at the top of our list too – and no amount is too small, friends.
Brent is a family man and dependable dad to these two beauties, Rachel and Rebecca. From homecoming queen to beautiful bride, Brent’s pride in all his girls is only surpassed by his pride in their deep faith in God and family. Kim has worked as a logistics analyst for an automotive company for more than 34 years, but is too young to get SS benefits normally associated with retirement and they are obviously too young for Medicare. Frankly, they’re stuck and together, we can help them out.
In October, Brent was awakened with excruciating pain in his hip, which landed him in the Emergency Room of Munson Medical in Traverse City. Blood panels revealed a WBC of 54,000. Two CT scans – both negative for other suspected illnesses took physician concerns in another direction.
His blood work was flown to The Mayo Clinic who confirmed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Days later, Brent was in the cancer ward at The University of Michigan hospital where aggressive chemo protocols were enacted.
His 2018 out of pocket insured medical has been maxed. Uninsured costs run over $1,500 per month.
Their 2019 out-of-pocket will be $9,800!
Uninsured costs include needed masks, gloves, sanitizer, and ongoing supplies Brent required pre-leukemia, now all the more important to protect his fragile system during this phase. Add the cost of fuel for the hour trips to and from the hospital daily for Kim, plus parking fees and you’re starting to get the picture. It’s probably a bad time to mention the furnace broke down this weekend, but here we are. The entire family is making financial sacrifices.
Where we are: Two in-patient rounds in November and December of chemo are done. Brent is in remission and it’s been rough. He is still in the University of Michigan hospital – and, a 25-year-old bone marrow donor has been found! Praise the Lord!
Their $9,800 out-of-pocket will be maxed out in the first month. 100% of your donations will be used to address medical bills. I’ve turned this account over to Brent and Kim and they will keep you updated on both his progress and how the monies are being applied.
With about 1.5 million people diagnosed with some form of cancer each year, we know you’ve got a choice on where your hard earned dollars go.
Brent doesn’t have any choice – and frankly, it was all we could do to convince him to allow me to make this plea on his behalf.
We want our friend’s focus to be on fighting this cancerous beast.
- Please give whatever you are moved to give
- Please pray for my friend and his family
- PLEASE share his story on your social media – it makes all the difference!
God bless you.
Don Cortez and Brent Smith
(Narrated and produced by family friend)