Hello everyone! My name is Natalie Meyer and I’m fundraising for my co-worker, Rick Mechura.

Rick has been a long-time electrician in the Storm Lake area having worked for his dad as well as owning his own business. He has been working for six years as an electrician at Power Solutions. Rick recently had to take some time off, as he had been battling (for over 60 days) to keep food of any sorts down. Everything he ate, he vomited right back out. The multiple doctor's appointments led to think it was acid reflux, but with different medicine and time passing, nothing was changing for the better.

Rick was finally able to get into Dr. Armstrong and have a scope done to hopefully get to the bottom of this huge issue. During all this, Rick lost a bunch of weight and muscle mass.

Dr Armstrong was able to determine the bottom line to Rick's problem -- CANCER.

That dreaded word no one ever wants to hear about him/herself or a loved one. The doctors had done more testing and found he has a cancerous tumor in his esophagus that is blocking access to his stomach and found a cancerous cell on the pericardium (casing of his heart) as well.

Rick has STAGE IV ESOPHAGEAL CANCER.

Time was of the essence and Rick immediately went to Omaha for surgery. During surgery, a stent was inserted to allow Rick to drink some fluids; a port was put in for his chemo treatments; and a feeding tube was inserted so Rick can get some nutrition back into his system.

Rick has lost a lot of weight and muscle loss due to not being able to keep any nutrition in his system, which has caused him to become very weak. All the pain from this is also affecting him from being able to get a good night’s rest and be comfortable relaxing.

The plan of attack is to get chemo and radiation started very quickly to try to shrink the tumor and possibly have surgery again to remove the tumor in his esophagus that is currently blocking the entry into his stomach. Unfortunately, the cancerous tumor that has spread to his pericardium is one that cannot be surgically removed.

Due to all of this, Rick is needing to take time off work to be able to regain strength and make his appointments.

Any monetary donation will be greatly appreciated to help offset all the expenses he has and will continue to incur.

Most importantly, please add Rick to your thoughts and/or prayers to stay strong and fight the good fight to kick this ugly cancer’s butt!