<div>Please Help Me (a permanently disabled retired veteran) give my dad the ability to Experience Life Before Stage 4 small cell Lung Cancer Takes It
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Hi, my name is Ross(age 36), and I’m raising money for my dad—the best man I’ve ever known—to help him experience even just a little bit of life before it’s too late and to help cover the mounting bills.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>My father (age 64)has stage 4 small cell lung cancer that has spread to his liver, spine, skull and now his brain. He’s been fighting hard since October 2024 with chemo and immunotherapy, but we’ve been told he’s almost out of time.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>He’s never had a real vacation, ever, all he’s known is hardship and loss. He’s Never had enough money to live anyway but paycheck to paycheck. Never had peace. Never had security.
</div>
<div>But he’s always had heart.
</div>
<div>And he’s always given everything for everyone else. Both of his sons joined the military in 2006, one of which, me, was permanently disabled from a severe spinal cord injury and my brother who was honorably discharged after completing his service as a prison guard at fort Leavenworth.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>⸻
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>A Life of Sacrifice
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>When my dad was 13, his father abandoned his family. My dad dropped out of school to support his mom, four brothers, and sister. He worked whatever jobs he could find—fixing cars, random manual labor, pumping gas, taking the hardest work no one else wanted just so they didn’t starve.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Later in life, when I was about 10, while helping his retired pa state trooper friend with Parkinson’s go to his hunting camp one last time, my dad had to lift him into a truck by himself when he got stuck getting in and my dad weighed about 150 pounds and he weighed over 300, rupturing five discs in his back. The spine fusion surgery that followed went wrong, and he’s been disabled ever since.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>At the same time, my mother developed giant tumors on her legs and couldn’t walk for the next 12 years. My dad—injured, in pain, and destitute because he wasn’t injured at work or in a way he could get compensation besides SSDI(which he only makes 1700 a month)—took care of her by himself every single day and raised two young sons. They were married for 29 years before She passed away at age 55 Because she never qualified for health insurance and by the time she finally got approved for it, it was too late. He’s never dated again in the 12 years since. She was his one and only love. I’ve seen my dad cry twice in his life, when his mom died and when my mom died.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>⸻
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>My Turn to Help—But I Can’t Do It Alone
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>When I turned 18, we would lose everything. My parents were about to become homeless because they would lose half their monthly income without having me as a child dependent anymore, so I joined the Army in 2006 at 17 immediately after high school to pay their rent, which I have done every month since to this day.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I was permanently disabled from a severe spinal cord injury in 2007 at age 19 while serving in the 10th Mountain Division as a military police officer and medically retired at age 21 after spending two years trying to recover in a warrior in transition unit(military hospital), I had to do speech therapy, cognitive rehabilitation, physical therapy and occupational therapy . I had a massive CSF leak that ended up causing a brain bleed and brain injury and short term memory problems. A few years later a disease formed in my spinal cord called adhesive arachnoiditis that’s so rare it’s in the rare disease registry. One in a million chance of it forming after a spinal cord injury. Basically I will lose bowl and bladder control as well as cognitive function over the next few years and possibly the ability to walk(Ive been able to walk short distances with a cane for the last 16years). It causes severe pain at all times and is a progressive disease like MS and is untreatable and incurable. Since then, my dad has helped take care of me. We’ve been together ever since, two broken bodies holding each other up. We’ve been best friends my entire life, he was even my best man at my wedding.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We survive on a fixed income: my VA disability and his SSDI, just enough to scrape by and live with dignity but we are forced to stay at home because we can’t afford to do more and I don’t want that to be his final months.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div> I need your help, so I can help him do more than just sit at home and wait to die. The bills have been piling up and I’ve spent everything I have trying to take care of him and give him as much time as possible.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>⸻
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I’m ashamed to admit I can’t give him this on my own because of my disabilities preventing me from being able to work and supplement my disability income to do this for him because I need to lay down every 30min to an hour for a few hours so I can walk with my cane again because of my severe nerve damage and pain in my spine.
</div>
<div>I don’t have much time left to try and give him a few weeks or months of being able to experience more than just suffering and stress for the first time in decades.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>⸻
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Why He Deserves This
</div>
<div>•	He worked on people’s cars for well below minimum wage just to try and feed us growing up and make sure we had clothes for school. He also just wanted to help other poor people be able to have a car to be able to work and support their families. At night I used to hear him laying on his recliner just moaning in pain all night from doing everything he could even while physically broken, so he could take care of his family.
</div>
<div>•	He’s never been to a dentist in 50 years and all of his teeth have been broken for decades because he can’t afford to even get dentures and after chemo he’s now struggling to eat anything.
</div>
<div>•	He took care of everyone, and a lot people used him and took advantage of him—because he was too kind to say no and because they knew he couldn’t say no if he wanted to feed his family.
</div>
<div>•	He’s never complained. He’s never asked for anything. He’s never asked me or anyone else for a dime in help, everything I do, I do because I love him.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>All I want is to give him a few good memories before this cancer takes him from me, not only for him but for me to be able to remember him happy again and have a few good memories with the only person I have left in this world.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>⸻
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>How You Can Help
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Im asking for finical help so I can use it to help with his medical needs and final comfort and let him experience whatever he would like to before leaving this world and also have a way of finding a place to live when he passes and be able to take care of his remains when he passes.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>If you can give—anything at all— even just a dollar it would mean the world just so I can show my dad how many people want to help him and care about him. You’ll be helping the kindest man I’ve ever known feel like his life mattered. That he mattered. If you can’t give that’s ok too, if you could please share this with someone who might be able to donate or help, it would mean everything to me and my father.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Thank you for reading.
</div>
<div>Thank you for believing that people like my dad deserve something good just once in their lives.
</div>
<div>Thank you for taking the time to read this and anything you can do to help. I can provide any documentation as proof for everything I’ve said.
</div>
<div>I have never asked anyone for help before and I am ashamed to have to ask anyone to take pity on us and help, but I’m pleading, please… please help me, please help my father.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>—Spc Ross A Keim us army disabled retired 10th mountain division 1BSTB 2006-2009
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><br />
</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/91771273_1750329368802511_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
<div><br />
</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/91771273_1750329455122406_r.png" width="100%" />
<div>These are my military retired Id as well as the mri of my spine
</div>

Anne Wagner

Todd and Tina Graeff

Anonymous

Audrey Era

Clayton Martin

Angela Lassandro

Kristin Stones

veronica vernon

Disabled Vet needs help for father with terminal cancer

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Disabled Vet needs help for father with terminal cancer

Still $9,155 to go. Help us build momentum.