A Concert for Craig

With my cancer fight ongoing, my friends at Koine have generously stepped forward to create a fundraiser for my family and me through this GoFundMe page, a benefit concert, and other means. I am humbled and blessed by the gesture…it would not have happened without them. Here are their words.

 

Every good band knows the most important member of the band is the "sound guy." Without a talented individual running the sound board and making sure everything sounds as it should, even extremely talented musicians will sound mediocre at best. While they are often overlooked from an audience perspective, the audio engineers we have had working with Koine through the years have been a critical part of making our ministry a success.

 

Craig Basten performed as Koine’s audio engineer for many years, touring with the band in support of The Vine, Emmanuel Lux, and other works. Because we consider Craig to be part of our Koine family, and because he’s given of himself to so many others for so long, we’re pleased to be able to organize this fundraiser for Craig and his family to offset the increasing financial and life burdens that this disease has presented over the past 3½ years.

 

Here is a brief summary of Craig's story:

 

On the evening of December 26, 2018, Craig was admitted to the emergency room with intense lower abdominal pain. He was about to be sent home with an inconclusive X-ray, when an eagle-eyed radiologist picked up on something in the images and insisted he be held for a CT scan. The CT revealed what nobody wants to hear…Cancer. Stage 4. Primarily in the colon with a near-complete blockage, with metastases in the liver, lungs, and abdominal lining.

 

Craig was admitted to the hospital as an inpatient immediately, where later on the morning of the 27th, he received emergency surgery to unblock the colon and remove the primary tumor via use of an ostomy.

 

Since that time, Craig has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and surgeries. For the most part, these have been successful, but as time has pressed on, complications have arisen and the path to a cure has grown much more cloudy. After a relatively long period of the metastases getting smaller and less active, the reverse is now true. Scans are showing malignancies in more places, and with greater activity than previously seen. In addition, he has contracted a liver condition which has made him jaundiced and unable to receive chemotherapy due to the liver toxicity. For the time being, there is no clear treatment path.

 

Please join us in supporting the Basten family, and thank you for your consideration.

The Benefit Concert will be held Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 6:30 PM at:
The CORE
820 W College Ave
Appleton WI 54914

Can’t be with us in person?  Feel free to join the livestream at the YouTube page below at the time of the concert!