Support Bruce's Journey Fighting Rare Blood Cancer

Hello everyone!

My name is Naomi and I am raising money on behalf of my parents, Mary and Bruce Brown. My stepfather, Bruce, has been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare form of blood cancer. This comes with about a 3 year life expectancy, and has already caused Bruce significant fatigue and ongoing pain. He has just finished his first 7 days of chemo at a facility 45 minutes away, which I was luckily able to help take him to and from. Unfortunately, that is the closest facility he can go to for chemo.

Due to his diagnosis and other health issues, Bruce is unable to walk very far or very steadily, so he requires someone to push him in the wheelchair and drive him to these appointments. Currently, Bruce has to go for 7 "consecutive" planned days each month (with the last two being separated by the weekend). He has also been told to get his blood drawn 3 times a week at our local facility to keep an eye on his hemoglobin levels. If his levels are too low, Bruce is required to spontaneously go up to the facility 45 minutes away to get a blood transfusion so they can continue the chemo.

Understandably, this is very overwhelming for all of us, especially my mom and Bruce. Both my sister Sarah and I are doing everything we can to help alleviate the stress, but are limited as we both live out of state. The biggest concerns we have right now are finding reliable transportation and help to bring Bruce to and from his various appointments, pushing him in the wheelchair and driving. We have sourced many different options for this, and unfortunately they are all pretty expensive. That’s where we are asking for your help. If we could at least work on the financial burden on my parents, then it would alleviate a significant amount of stress that they are feeling and ensure that Bruce is reliably able to get where he needs and be well taken care of. In addition to the cost of his treatment and getting him to appointments, my parents have recently: installed a stair lift to increase inside mobility, rented a wheelchair ramp for outside mobility, made some modifications to the restroom to make it more accessible for Bruce, and are planning to invest in a motorized wheelchair to hopefully give him a bit more independence moving forward. All of this combined is an incredible financial weight. This weight will only exponentially increase if Bruce becomes eligible for stem cell replacement, which would increase his life expectancy to about 10 years.

Please consider donating to help our father, husband, friend, family, Da – the notorious Father Mosh. I cannot begin to express how great of a blessing it would be on our small family.