Support The Yancik's During Their Upcoming Battles

My name is Bailey Hedrick, and I am Austin Yancik's little sister. His wife, Sophie, is one of my best friends. I am creating this GoFundMe page to help the Yancik family.

As many of you know, Austin served in the United States Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller at Whiteman Air Force Base. After completing his six years of service, he got a job with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sophie worked as a Registered Nurse in a cardiac unit and later at a Cancer Institute.

In November 2017, Austin was diagnosed with a slow-growing cancerous brain tumor. He traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for his first craniotomy. While the neurosurgeon was initially optimistic about the surgery's results, it became apparent that nearly the entire tumor had been missed. Austin and Sophie sought a second opinion at the Cleveland Clinic. In December 2018, almost exactly a year later, Austin underwent another craniotomy to remove the tumor. The results of this surgery were better, but Cleveland Clinic continued to monitor him with frequent MRIs. This type of brain tumor infiltrates healthy brain tissue, making it difficult to completely remove during surgery.

During this time, Austin and Sophie welcomed two little boys, Charlie and Asher. When Sophie was pregnant with Asher in 2020, they discovered he had a rare variant of a congenital heart condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Asher was born with nearly half a heart. He has already undergone two heart surgeries and multiple other procedures. Asher will require another open-heart surgery in the summer of 2025 and may need future surgeries or even a heart transplant.

Last week, Austin had an appointment to review his most recent MRI and was informed that the tumor has grown substantially. Both the neuro-oncologist and neurosurgeon agree that Austin needs another surgery to remove the tumor. He will likely be out of commission for a couple of months. The brain surgery is scheduled for January. The whole family will be traveling back to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for this. Less than three weeks later, Asher will need to be back in Kansas City for a heart catheterization. Meanwhile, Sophie is currently pregnant with their third baby, who is due at the beginning of February. This is around the time Austin will likely start chemotherapy and radiation.

Your donations would help ease some of the stress on their family. The funds would go towards travel, food, and the medical bills that have piled up. This young family has endured more in the past seven years than most people experience in a lifetime. Even if you cannot donate, please say a prayer for this sweet family as they tackle another significant challenge, all while preparing to welcome their new little bundle of joy into the world.