Dear Friends:  We are reaching out asking for help for a very dear friend, a 50-year member of the Afghan Hound community, who is in the fight of her life.  Her son, her only child, was recently diagnosed with a rare, excruciatingly painful signet ring carcinoma metastatic bone marrow cancer.  Those who know Barbara Silverstone (Rampura Afghans Hounds) are aware that she lost her husband, and life partner, Allen, just a little over a year ago.  He was in hospitals and rehabilitation centers for nearly a year before passing. 

Following Allen's death, Barbara and her two champion Afghan Hounds, relocated from the New York City area to Florida where it is more affordable to live on a fixed income, leaving David behind in New York.

A few months ago, after helping Barbara and the Afghans move to Florida, David, 39 years-old, started experiencing severe back pain that was limiting his mobility.  He was seen by several specialists yielding inconclusive test results, but one specialist kept pushing for an answer to the unusual blood work and ordered and MRI which revealed an aggressive metastatic process in his bone marrow - a signet ring cell carcinoma of unknown origins.  It is so rare there are no exact matches in clinical literature.  It has metastasized throughout his spine, hips, ribcage, and shoulders, causing excruciating pain in all activities of daily living.  A leading oncologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital, NYC, took David as a patient, immediately starting him on heavy chemotherapy infusion regimen to try to slow the progression of this aggressive and painful cancer, but he now needs a walker for short distances and a wheelchair, and the assistance o his mother, Barbara to get him to his appointments in NYC.

Although Barbara has serious health issues, she is the only person who can help him navigate to the City to get the treatment he needs.  David is, obviously, unable to work.  His health insurance is subsidized by New York and has limitations to doctors in the New York network.  To get consults from other oncologists, including one in NYC with expertise in David's cancer type, requires substantial out-of-pocket payments upfront.  With her only child in a struggle for his life, Barbara needs to be there, but she is barely able to meet her own financial obligations on a limited, fixed income.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.  If you cannot afford to financially help, we ask for your prayers for strength and healing for Barbara and David.  The road ahead will not be easy, and they need our emotional, spiritual, and financial assistance.  

God bless you, and Barbara and David.

Toni Richmond and Lee Canalizo