David's Fight Against Cancer
Thank you.
I hate begging, I hate there's nothing else I can do, and if it was for myself I probably wouldn't do it, but for someone else I realize I'm willing to strangle my pride. If other people can ask for donations because they spent their life savings on lotto tickets or for plastic surgery, then I figure setting this up won't hurt.
My father has stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), among other problems. If you don't know, that's Extremely Bad™ . Treatments that work on other cancers don't tend to work on this type of cancer. Three months ago he was given a 50% chance to go 6-12 months with treatment, a 20% chance to go 2 years, a 2% chance beyond that.
And my father, being the type of person he is, is more worried about his family than himself. He's also convinced he's a burden (which he's not!) but nothing can persuade him otherwise. It's heartbreaking.
Meanwhile the bills are piling up. My father and mother are already selling off possessions. He's already lost so much, like life just keeps beating him down and he keeps standing back up, but now it looks like might lose his job and family home as well, which my parents only have because my father built it himself, more or less.
He's going to die and the government's going to take the family home from his widow and children as punishment, that's what it feels like.
The minimum it would take to pay off the bills and keep the home is $160,000 in the next month or two, so that's what I've set the goal at. But I'm realist, and I know that's unattainable; there are no miracles. The most I can hope for is a little alleviation, maybe enough so my father won't have to sell his cherished guitar.
Our gratitude would be immeasurable.
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” ~ Oscar Wilde
NOTE: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/lung-cancer-non-small-cell/overview if you want to read about it. Anyone can get it, but having worked as a construction worker and installer, my father was exposed to asbestos a lot, even covering pipes in asbestos with his bare hands, which probably didn't help.