Help Chris Yoars Fight Rectal Cancer

Hi! My name is Chris Yoars. I was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer on July 10, 2024. I am currently undergoing treatment. I have already gone through radiation therapy with oral chemo and have surgery scheduled for January 6, 2025. My wife Katie and I have 2 children, ages 13 and 10. I am a graphic designer and video maker for a corporation based in the Chicago area.

It has certainly been a whirlwind since diagnosis. I feel like Katie and I have received PhD degrees in conventional and alternative cancer treatments. One of the biggest things we have been learning is the role of nutrition in cancer. About a week after diagnosis, we changed our diet to be mostly whole-foods plant-based.

The most important thing to me though has been the strengthening of my relationship with Jesus Christ since being diagnosed. Although I might have physical cancer, He is curing spiritual cancer in me. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). Though on the surface I may be the closest to physical death I have ever been, He can make me more alive than I have ever been even in the valley of the shadow of death.

"I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being" (Psalm 146:2).

Cancer treatment is very expensive and although we have high deductible health insurance there is significant out of pocket expense, such as meeting the deductible, paying co-insurance until the out-of-pocket-max has been met (for at least 2024 and 2025), and paying for doctor visits, treatments, and supplements that are not covered by insurance. Although we have some savings, we were not budgeting and planning to have one of us get sick and be requiring a maximum amount of personal medical payments, and especially not for two consecutive years. I am also planning to go on short term disability leave at the time of surgery. We are thankful for our company policy which covers partial pay for up to six months, but because it is partial pay we anticipate an income gap to make up for.

Thank you all for the overwhelming support we have received as a family in the form of prayers, conversations and company, cards, gifts, meals, childcare, rides and other helpful things. We are truly grateful and pray that God will bless you.