We are reaching out to friends, family, and caring individuals to help an incredible human being Eric aka Dirk Hecox. To most us Eric is one in a million. I have had the privilege of knowing Eric my whole life, I practically lived at his house growing up. I visited him in college up at Northern, we travel across the country together to and from Yosemite and I watched him interact with many of you. The thing about Dirk is that he makes those around him smile. His raw energy, sarcastic humor, and mustard stained shirts makes this a better world to live in. He and his family have always been there for me and for many of you. It’s time now that we are here for them.
Eric was recently diagnosed with cancer and we wanted to find a way to help. I reached out to him and his wife,Claire, to see what we could do. It turns out that their medical bills are piling up and even though it is hard for them to ask for help they agreed that something needed to be done. So I am reaching out to all Marshall High School graduates, friends at Northern Michigan University, Yosemites, Michiganders, people of Seward Alaska, and of Marshall Michigan to help out.
Eric’s fight began in early October when his doctor found a mass in his testicle. After seeing a specialist, he had surgery to remove one of his testicles. About a week later, after a trip to the ER for pain in his lower back, a CT scan revealed that he had another mass in his abdomen located in his lymph nodes. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer, seminoma, which had spread to his lymph nodes.
After seeing multiple doctors and specialists at different clinics his treatment plan was decided. Eric is currently undergoing 3 rounds of chemotherapy. After his third round is complete in mid-January the doctors will do another round of scans and tests to see if the chemo was able to kill all the cancer. If there is any cancer left the next step would be one more round of chemo. If that does not take care of it they would perform a major surgery to remove the rest of the tumor.
Right now we are crossing our fingers that the 3 rounds will be enough and trying to stay positive through this fight. The prognosis is good and there is a high survival rate for this kind of cancer.
We are raising money to help pay for Eric’s medical bills.
To help get the word out, you can share the link to your Facebook Timeline
