Argall Strong

Over the course of the last 15 months, the Argall family has been fighting an unbelievable battle. John has been fighting cancer that started in his kidney in 2013 but since then has metastasized to his brain. He has been out of work during this long fight and his wife Renee has been working to keep the family going and support their children at home Abby 21, Colby 20, and Brody 12. Their oldest daughter Riley and husband Jeff have also been helping with support for their family. 

John has a history of Renal Cell Carcinoma, initially diagnosed in 2013. In November of that year, a 7 cm mass was discovered on his kidney which was then removed. He got a clean bill of health and was in remission from 2013 to 2020.

In February 2020, after noticing that John was acting strange, Renee took him to the Monroe Clinic ER. He was transferred to St Mary’s hospital where they found that the kidney cancer had metastasized (spread) to the brain. His team at St. Mary’s performed a left craniotomy (a portion of the skull is removed to allow access to cancerous tissue) to remove the cancer from John’s brain. John was sent home to recover with his family.

In April of 2020, John started showing personality changes and confusion. He was sent to the UW Madison for an MRI. The report showed new brain lesions consistent with metastatic disease. He underwent his second frontal craniotomy to remove the cancer and after a hospital stay, was once again sent home to recover with family.

Then in July of 2020 John had a repeat MRI which showed a disease recurrence. In August, John underwent a third re-do of a frontal craniotomy for resection of tumor. Radiation was added to John's treatment to aggressively fight this cancer.

Post radiation, John developed necrosis, damage to the tissue around the brain. He began experiencing fatigue, confusion and weakness. Due to swelling of the brain, John was scheduled for his fourth brain surgery and in May of 2021, another re-do of the left, frontal craniotomy.

This family has been through an extremely difficult fight, the ups and down of cancer have taken a toll. Covid caused restrictions on John’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th surgery and hospital stay, forcing him to go through this without his family by his side. The hope of this page is to raise immediate funds for help with medical expenses, travel to and from Madison for appointments, and living expenses. The family is unsure of John’s ability to return to work so funds would also be used to supplement the loss of his income. He is currently staying at home and Abby is spending the summer at home as her dad’s full time caretaker. Riley has been able to work from home and has been spending time with her family helping in every way possible.

John is strong and will continue to push through this. He will have routine check-ups and scans to keep a close eye on his progress. His team at the UW has been very happy with his progress.

If you can’t donate at this time, please share this page and pray for this family. We appreciate your support and continued prayers. Thank you!!!