Erich's Cancer Treatment

Hi everyone,

My name is Kenny Schultz. My dad, Erich Schultz, has recently been diagnosed with cancer—with a squamous cell tumor of the neck stemming from a cancerous lymph node that burst and is interspersed with the neck muscles. Thankfully, there is a good plan for treatment, and his doctors are confident that he will make a full recovery after about 16 weeks. Unfortunately though, this treatment is going to be a brutal combination of radiation and chemotherapy that will leave my dad, a physical laborer by trade, in pretty bad shape. During his treatment, he will be suffering from many collateral symptoms that need to be monitored and addressed daily, including loss of the ability to swallow, loss of gag reflex and mucosis. He will likely need to be put on a feeding tube during the later weeks of his treatment.

Simply put, we are in a tough financial situation.

I am hoping to raise $10,000 to help my dad pay for expenses during this time. These funds will go towards our home mortgage as well as bills and expenses ranging from utilities, to out of network medical costs, to the remainder of his parent contribution for my undergraduate education. As for this last one—Columbia has proven completely unwilling to reduce or delay the payment of our remaining premium. I am currently able to care for my own needs through income earned from Federal Work Study, but those jobs—of which I work two—don’t leave me with any leftover cash to help him.

My dad has raised me as a single parent. In hard times, I have watched him forgo meals for my sake. I have watched him work eighty and ninety hour weeks to stay afloat. I’ve seen him navigate our lives mostly without support. It has been, for most of my life, just the two of us. It’s my turn to care for him, but I need your help to do so.

Erich is a hardworking and honest man. And, as is typically also true with so many guys like that, he is a stubborn and proud one. He is private, and would likely be angry at me for even asking for assistance from you all. With that in mind, I ask that you please direct any inquiries to me as I work out our plans over the coming months.

Thank you so much for your support everyone. I’m deeply grateful for you.