Dana's journey

My brother in law, Dana Colton, is suffering with liver cancer. He has been sick  for quite a few years now. As his health continues to fail his devoted wife and caregiver, Denise struggles to make ends meet, as we all do under normal circumstances. Imagine being the sole support of the family, buying groceries, paying all the usual monthly bills, clothing and feeding yourself, your daughter, and your husband, and on top of that, paying for expensive medications, many of which are not covered by his medicare plan.

Needless to say, Dana, Denise, and their sweet daughter, Danielle, are having a really hard time of it.

The doctors have taken Dana off of chemo because it has not done enough good to warrant it's expense and the severe side effects. More or less, the medical team locally has said there is nothing more they can do for him.

There are a few options. They have a consultation appointment with Duke University, which is a four hour drive. Denise will have to take time off of work, which is fine for that initial consultation. But if Dana is accepted into the clinical program at Duke, the traveling back and forth will become pretty expensive, not to mention the cumulative time away from work. If not accepted into the Duke research program, another option is in Arizona where the Mayo Clinic is doing clinical trials on liver cancer patients. The challenges of getting to Duke are high enough.

Getting Dana to Arizona is almost an impossible dream. But one worth pursuing. If you have a loved one that is dying, but has a slither of hope if he or she is able to seek help elsewhere, even though costly. Wouldn't you do all you could to grasp that slither of hope?

Help Denise raise money to continue to give Dana hope. His family needs him. He needs hope. Any and all donations will go to funding Dana's medical expenses, which may include travel expenses to and from Duke or Arizona.

Any excess money would go to a college fund for Danielle, who wants to return to school but has taken time off because she wants to spend time with her Dad, and because she cannot afford school at this time.

I know this was lengthy, but I hope you will find it in your heart to help ease some of this good family's burden and restore some hope to their seemingly hopeless struggle. Please donate what you can. And please, please offer prayer.
Thank you, Karen