Chris's fight against brain cancer

In February 2023, our beloved dad, Chris, was diagnosed with glioblastoma—an aggressive, complex, and universally fatal form of brain cancer.

After several months spent in the hospital due to debilitating and treatment resistant seizures, our dad had a successful operation (known as a gross total resection) to remove what we then believed to be a low grade brain tumor. Our excitement about the successful surgery quickly turned to sadness when genetic testing confirmed that his tumor was, in fact, a glioblastoma. The average life expectancy for glioblastoma treated with standard-of-care radiation and chemotherapy is just over a year, and the 5 year survival rate is only 5.8%. While the statistics are grim, we have good reason to believe that our dad can beat these odds and become a long term survivor.

Despite months of severe memory loss, speech issues, and seizures, he has made a remarkable recovery after surgery and has regained significant independence in day to day life. His tumor has a genetic mutation (MGMT methylation) that makes it more sensitive to chemotherapy. He is eligible for several promising clinical trials, and has an incredible team of doctors, nurses, and physical therapists at the UW Alvord Brain Tumor Center. We are eternally grateful to his entire team for guiding us through this journey with their empathy and expertise. Most importantly, our dad is resilient and positive-minded beyond measure. We are in awe of the strength, courage, and humor he shows every day in the face of this evil disease.

Despite these encouraging signs, the road ahead is not easy. Our dad needs 24/7 care, and his insurance only covers a few hours of in-home healthcare a week. We have respectively quit our jobs and dropped out of college to support him. Even so, we are stretched thin as we are his only caregivers.

Our dad will soon begin 6 weeks of concurrent chemotherapy and daily radiation therapy, followed by additional chemotherapy and the experimental immunotherapy SurvaxM. As you can imagine, these treatments are taxing, both physically and financially. We have done our best to tackle this ourselves, but with his insurance set to expire next month, hospital bills mounting, and all three of us unable to work full time, we need support.

We are doing everything in our power to ensure our dad lives as long and as comfortably as possible. But we can’t do it alone. All donations will go directly to our dad’s medical costs, his basic costs of living, respite home care to allow us an ocasional break, and travel to/from appointments. Any unused funds will be donated to the Glioblastoma Research Foundation in hopes that families in the future might be spared this heartbreak.

With love and gratitude,

Ben and Elyse