Hello everyone!
As many of you know our world has been turned upside down in a matter of weeks. We are not ones to ask for help, we prefer to provide assistance to those in need. Although in this time of hardship for our family, we want to extended the offer to those who are able to assist, and feel so inclined. Joe is a volunteer firefighter and worked as an EMT locally and really enjoy caring for the individuals of our community. Jill is also a volunteer with a local department and has worked for the local ambulance company to assist those in their times of need. We are turning to you all in our hardship.
In the beginning of October Joe was working and collapsed and had a seizure, this was shocking to everyone as he was a healthy individual. A visit to the Basset Emergency Room, revealed that there was a brain mass on my right temporal lobe, this was affecting a number of things in my life. A decision was made that it was best to receive treatment at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, we traveled there and stayed in the Emergency Room for 5 days. We then came home for two weeks and await a surgery date, on October 28th I had a gross total resection of the mass, that was found to be cancerous. Despite the efforts to remove the tumor it was found to be a very very rare aggressive cancer that is unable to be cured, it is a genetic cancer that affects the central nervous system and grows rapidly in the brain. Even with the radiation and chemotherapy, I was given one to two years to live and no more than five.
As I hope to beat this statistic, I am asking family, friends, and communities assistance in helping me to keep quality or life, and ease the financial stress on our family during these times. All money raised will be used for travel for treatments, food for our family and to help keep, our bills paid, as we are both currently out of work, due to the rigorous travel required for the treatments, medical diagnosis, and starting chemotherapy and radiation.
We hate to ask for help, although I ask you to please consider helping our family ease the stress if you're able, anything is appreciated, even a simple share helps. If you wish to donate in other ways please reach out. Thank you everyone for their continued prayers and support.
UPDATE: We want to express our sincere thanks to everyone who has donated, it truly means the world to our family. We were able to enjoy the holidays with our family, however there is always the weight of not knowing if it's the last holiday season together. As we plan to navigate the future of this medical journey. We are closing in on our journey of radiation, thankfully Joe has continue to feel well with only some effects from the radiation. We now will need to navigate the journey of chemotherapy, which will be a much tougher journey. Thank you everyone for their continued support. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we navigate this journey. As always please feel free to reach out to us personally if you'd like to support in other ways than financially.