Jesse is a hard-working, loving father of two girls. His eldest daughter, Sofi, he adopted out of foster care with his wife, Caitlin, seven years ago; and they have a five-year-old daughter, Eva, together. Last July, Jesse was laid off from his executive chef position, losing the primary source of income for his family and their family's health insurance, and was looking for his next opportunity. Sensing he had reached his income earning potential as a chef in Texas, he began brainstorming with his wife a possible career change.

In late September, he excitedly revealed to his family that after careful research he wanted to make a BIG career change and become a commercial airline pilot. He had for many years daydreamed of this chance, but always thought it would be out of reach for him. His wife and kids were very excited and supportive for this new direction their family would go in. In quick order, he was enrolled in flight school and had passed his aviation medical exam.

Shortly after making these initial steps into the aviation world, Jesse became very ill very quickly - he lost 30 pounds in three weeks. An endoscopy revealed he had a tumor that had almost entirely filled his stomach. A biopsy determined that Jesse had an extremely rare type of stomach cancer, the path of treatment being quite unclear. A radical, and life-saving, stomach removal surgery, and eight rounds of chemo later, Jesse has rebounded remarkably. He will continue to need five weeks of radiation with low dose chemo, but his scans and blood tests all look extremely encouraging.

Jesse and Caitlin have been blessed to be supported by friends, family, and their church over this last year, but the financial burden has been a very heavy lift. His part-time catering work and Caitlin's housekeeping work has not allowed them to keep from accruing debt from medical treatments and daily living costs. This ask is to help Jesse finish the hardest fight of his life and to one day hear in his headset, "You are cleared for takeoff."