Help DC's Dream Stay Alive

Hi all,

I wanted to start off by thanking you for taking the time to even look at my cause. You are the greatest!

My Story:

This past year has been a rollercoaster of emotions with ups and downs. I know I'm not a special case and I know there's thousands of people in need. However, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't absolutely necessary and if I hadn't exhausted all other options.

My health dates back to when I was a child, growing up with multiple health concerns but nothing life-threatening. Last year, my health took a turn for the worst when I was diagnosed with a type of testicular cancer called seminoma at a second stage and was concerned it could spread or worse. We were able to have it taken care of safely by removal of the entire right testis, yet the doctors were concerned it could spread elsewhere. They also recommended I do not do chemo because of my other health concerns (lymphedema and other intestinal issues). They feared that with chemo, my other health issues would worsen. I continued to be monitored closely throughout the year because of the fear it could spread.

Everything was going great! My fiancé, at the time, and I began our adventure to open up a fitness gym (9Round: 30 Min Kickbox Fitness) in our community. I always felt it was my duty to help others live the healthiest and most fulfilled life possible. My own health issues are what motivated me. We were on a path to do so by the end of 2016 but we hit several bumps that delayed the process.

Going into 2017, we thought, it's a new year and a chance to regain our foothold to continue our business adventure. Everything was starting to look up for us, until Mid-April.

For the past checkups that I had, nothing was popping up and everything looked great. Both my fiancé and I never expected to hear what we heard. The doctor called me into his office to discuss test results. He stated there was an abnormally shaped lump on my other testicle. This concerned him based on blood work and previous cancer.

He suggested I do the procedure within that week. I declined due to not having a job. My only job at the time was to build our gym! I was determined to open before May 28th, the day I married my best friend. So we set the procedure date for a month out, thinking we would be open or close to being open for business. That wasn't the case and we had to postpone the surgery again for another month, against the doctors recommendations. These were all of my decisions because I did not want to leave my wife alone in building out our business because we put in ALL of our labor into building the gym. We did EVERYTHING ourselves, and learned so much in construction!

We now scheduled the surgery to be 2 days after our wedding. When it came closer to the wedding and surgery, we received bad news on some of our equipment not being delivered for another couple weeks. This meant we weren't going to be able to open by the wedding and once again I postponed the surgery for another 3 weeks. This gave us the opportunity to have our wedding without worrying about the surgery on top of everything else.

We had our magical wedding and everything went perfectly. I am now a married man and it's my duty to do what ever is necessary to succeed. Two weeks after the wedding, we were able to finally open for business, yet there was still a lot of pressure because of our finances by this point. We did what we could in obtaining clients for the gym but we were not able to hit the number we needed in order to break even, at least. This was the hardest because I knew I was going to have surgery 4 days after we opened our gym and I was going to be out for a couple of weeks to recover.

This brings us to today. I am still currently recovering from surgery where they told us that they had to remove the entire left testis and wasn't able to use any sperm for the future (another hard blow, when waking up from surgery). After the procedure, I was so determined to get back to the gym and do what I could to earn more clients but I've been limited due to my recovery.

What we're asking of you, is help to be able to pay for my medical expenses and cost of living. This is our last resort and without your help, we will be evicted from our apartment within a month due to insufficient funds. All of my money has gone toward last year's surgery and the business.

I am afraid we will lose everything we have worked so hard for but with your generosity we will prevail and overcome this major obstacle!

Thank you again for taking the time and for your donation! It's because of all of you, my support system, that I have remained sane. Thank you!