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LIFE CHANGING PHONE CALL
It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, surrounded by friends, when the calls comes in and all of a sudden life just seems to stop. Many of you reading this can absolutely relate. Your body goes limp and you feel your heart break and you are rendered helpless.
My name is Luba Mishchenko and I am Dave's sister. Though Dave is 50 years old I still call him my baby brother. I still retain that strong big sister stance that I had on the playground in public school when I took on this kid who was bullying my baby brother. Today that bully is not a kid on the playground but the bully's name is cancer and my big sister fighting attitude is back.
Today I share with you Dave's story and humbly ask you to help my brother in this fight. He has quite a road ahead of him and together we can fight with him and help him come through this victoriously.
THE MAN (my baby brother)
After completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering Dave spent some time working in Africa with a Christian development organization. That is where he met Marcia who was also working in Africa as a missionary. They have been married for 22 years. Fortunately, she was from the west coast so Dave joined her there in B.C and now enjoys winters without ice and snow.
Marcia and Dave have four wonderful children: Karis, Luke, Ariana and Yerik, aged 19 down to 12. Dave has been the primary provider and Marcia put her own career on hold until recently so she could home school and raise this amazing family.
I added this picture below from a few years ago because its one of Dave's favorite pictures.
Dave works as a Senior Systems Engineer at a company called ProserveIT. He works with clients' servers and networks to ensure that things run smoothly. Basically I would translate that a lot of people like Dave cause he keeps their computers working and saves people from losing their minds. Dave told me his greatest work achievement would be the ad-hoc mentoring times with his co-workers.
He has accomplished a goal on his bucket list and authored a book on VMware vSphere. (Something to do with his work?) ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And at home Dave enjoys boating with his family, target shooting, carpentry, metalwork, making and creating things in the garage. Marcia describes him as, "He can watch a YouTube Video and go do what he had just watched, like sew new material on our boat cushions or fix our van or the garage door or anything. It's the engineer side of him but he's gifted."
THE STORY AND THE COST
That life changing phone call from Dave was to let me know that he was in hospital and very sick. His pancreas was not functioning and doctors were already suspecting pancreatic cancer. The first step was to put in a pancreatic stent to get the pancreas functioning again, then when Dave was stable, a surgery would follow to remove part of the pancreas. The stent worked well and after several days Dave went in for emergency surgery. You feel so optimistic and so sure things are going to turn out then comes news that tears a person to shreds. They didn't do the operation because when they opened him up they found spots on his liver. They closed him back up and the stent remained inside. The cancer was now the most important thing to treat and time was of the essence. (Please consider watching the video at the very top as I think it's important to hear Dave's story from Dave himself.)
As Dave and Marcia have worked their way through to obtain traditional treatments through the Canadian system, they have also found great hope in more advanced treatments in Mexico. These treatments will be complementary and enhance the limited treatments that Dave can obtain here in Canada. The great news is he can start right away. (As I write this to you, an oncologist has not even been assigned to Dave yet here in Canada, yet time is of the essence!)
I myself have had the experience and watched friends go through the tremendous impact of a critical illness. Part of stress and strain is how to manage finances. To me, that burden shouldn't even exist but the reality is that it does. I just learned tonight that Dave's youngest son Yerik, who is 12 years old, asked his mom if he could get a job to help support his dad's recovery. Why a 12 year old has to bear that burden is beyond me. Each of us, out of our own understanding and compassion, can help this family out in this tough journey ahead of them and to provide relief financially so they can focus on Dave's recovery and their well-being.
Dave mentions in the video that the cost will be approximately $56000. This cost will be coming in the next few weeks. I want to breakdown for you what the money raised will be spent on (in Canadian Funds). The clinic name is Immunity Therapy Center located in Tijuana Mexico and here is the link if you want to check it out: https://www.immunitytherapycenter.com
Core cost 25643.25 (3 weeks and explained below)
Extra week 7560
Specific killer cell vaccine 5332.50
Other medical 2000
Flights 900
Lodging 3640
Food 1100
After visit Medical
Equipment and Prescriptions 10000
TOTAL $56175.75
This is what is included in the program price:
21 different therapies as needed, assigned doctors, daily consultations, 2 nurses in the therapy room, weekly blood work, nutritionist evaluation, nutritionist program, 2 meals daily, 1 ultrasound, 1 x-ray
HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help Dave and his family by:
Praying:
This family needs a miracle and the God I live for and I know Dave's family lives for, is a God who heals. Nothing is impossible for Him and we will give God the glory in all of this. He is our hope!
Donating to this campaign through:
The Donate button on this page
Sharing this campaign:
Please take the time to share Dave's story and the YouTube video to as many people as possible. An email or a post on Facebook will make a huge difference in a successful fundraising campaign for Dave.
GRATITUDE FROM ALL OF US
For those that know Dave, and even if you don't know Dave, you can understand the devastation of his diagnosis to all of us. It's unbearable at times but there is tremendous hope and we are pulling together to get through this time and to get Dave back to his life and to positively impacting the life of people around him.
I want to personally thank each person who has taken the time to read this story.
From all of us, your support has been truly humbling and we are so very grateful to each one of you for your prayers, love, generosity and support.
THANK-YOU FROM THE MISHCHENKO FAMILY
It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, surrounded by friends, when the calls comes in and all of a sudden life just seems to stop. Many of you reading this can absolutely relate. Your body goes limp and you feel your heart break and you are rendered helpless.
My name is Luba Mishchenko and I am Dave's sister. Though Dave is 50 years old I still call him my baby brother. I still retain that strong big sister stance that I had on the playground in public school when I took on this kid who was bullying my baby brother. Today that bully is not a kid on the playground but the bully's name is cancer and my big sister fighting attitude is back.
Today I share with you Dave's story and humbly ask you to help my brother in this fight. He has quite a road ahead of him and together we can fight with him and help him come through this victoriously.
THE MAN (my baby brother)
After completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering Dave spent some time working in Africa with a Christian development organization. That is where he met Marcia who was also working in Africa as a missionary. They have been married for 22 years. Fortunately, she was from the west coast so Dave joined her there in B.C and now enjoys winters without ice and snow.
Marcia and Dave have four wonderful children: Karis, Luke, Ariana and Yerik, aged 19 down to 12. Dave has been the primary provider and Marcia put her own career on hold until recently so she could home school and raise this amazing family.
I added this picture below from a few years ago because its one of Dave's favorite pictures.
Dave works as a Senior Systems Engineer at a company called ProserveIT. He works with clients' servers and networks to ensure that things run smoothly. Basically I would translate that a lot of people like Dave cause he keeps their computers working and saves people from losing their minds. Dave told me his greatest work achievement would be the ad-hoc mentoring times with his co-workers.
He has accomplished a goal on his bucket list and authored a book on VMware vSphere. (Something to do with his work?) ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And at home Dave enjoys boating with his family, target shooting, carpentry, metalwork, making and creating things in the garage. Marcia describes him as, "He can watch a YouTube Video and go do what he had just watched, like sew new material on our boat cushions or fix our van or the garage door or anything. It's the engineer side of him but he's gifted."
THE STORY AND THE COST
That life changing phone call from Dave was to let me know that he was in hospital and very sick. His pancreas was not functioning and doctors were already suspecting pancreatic cancer. The first step was to put in a pancreatic stent to get the pancreas functioning again, then when Dave was stable, a surgery would follow to remove part of the pancreas. The stent worked well and after several days Dave went in for emergency surgery. You feel so optimistic and so sure things are going to turn out then comes news that tears a person to shreds. They didn't do the operation because when they opened him up they found spots on his liver. They closed him back up and the stent remained inside. The cancer was now the most important thing to treat and time was of the essence. (Please consider watching the video at the very top as I think it's important to hear Dave's story from Dave himself.)
As Dave and Marcia have worked their way through to obtain traditional treatments through the Canadian system, they have also found great hope in more advanced treatments in Mexico. These treatments will be complementary and enhance the limited treatments that Dave can obtain here in Canada. The great news is he can start right away. (As I write this to you, an oncologist has not even been assigned to Dave yet here in Canada, yet time is of the essence!)
I myself have had the experience and watched friends go through the tremendous impact of a critical illness. Part of stress and strain is how to manage finances. To me, that burden shouldn't even exist but the reality is that it does. I just learned tonight that Dave's youngest son Yerik, who is 12 years old, asked his mom if he could get a job to help support his dad's recovery. Why a 12 year old has to bear that burden is beyond me. Each of us, out of our own understanding and compassion, can help this family out in this tough journey ahead of them and to provide relief financially so they can focus on Dave's recovery and their well-being.
Dave mentions in the video that the cost will be approximately $56000. This cost will be coming in the next few weeks. I want to breakdown for you what the money raised will be spent on (in Canadian Funds). The clinic name is Immunity Therapy Center located in Tijuana Mexico and here is the link if you want to check it out: https://www.immunitytherapycenter.com
Core cost 25643.25 (3 weeks and explained below)
Extra week 7560
Specific killer cell vaccine 5332.50
Other medical 2000
Flights 900
Lodging 3640
Food 1100
After visit Medical
Equipment and Prescriptions 10000
TOTAL $56175.75
This is what is included in the program price:
21 different therapies as needed, assigned doctors, daily consultations, 2 nurses in the therapy room, weekly blood work, nutritionist evaluation, nutritionist program, 2 meals daily, 1 ultrasound, 1 x-ray
HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help Dave and his family by:
Praying:
This family needs a miracle and the God I live for and I know Dave's family lives for, is a God who heals. Nothing is impossible for Him and we will give God the glory in all of this. He is our hope!
Donating to this campaign through:
The Donate button on this page
Sharing this campaign:
Please take the time to share Dave's story and the YouTube video to as many people as possible. An email or a post on Facebook will make a huge difference in a successful fundraising campaign for Dave.
GRATITUDE FROM ALL OF US
For those that know Dave, and even if you don't know Dave, you can understand the devastation of his diagnosis to all of us. It's unbearable at times but there is tremendous hope and we are pulling together to get through this time and to get Dave back to his life and to positively impacting the life of people around him.
I want to personally thank each person who has taken the time to read this story.
From all of us, your support has been truly humbling and we are so very grateful to each one of you for your prayers, love, generosity and support.
THANK-YOU FROM THE MISHCHENKO FAMILY
Organizer and beneficiary
Dave Mishchenko
Beneficiary