Help support my brother in law Darin with cancer

I know a lot of my dear friends have been fallowing  my brother in law Darin's story.❤️  I have put in his words his journey with his cancer and life obstacles. 
I am starting a go fund me in hopes to help relieve some financial burden on Darin and Tonya my sister durning these difficult times. And in hopes to cover some medical coast that wont be covered. ❤️ They have given up so much in life as good people to try to help orphan children in 3rd world country's as ministers. 

❤️ for those friends who would like to help support my dear brother in law  Darin. He is the kindest Soul... please take a moment to read❤️. 

Every dollar helps..feel free to share with friends and family.❤️

Updates on the update:

"Darin will need daily injections for the rest of his life. Each injection is $30 a day and is not covered by MSI. When we left our missionary contract position in order to take voluntarily take care of these orphans, we no longer had medical or full life insurance coverage. Therefore, these injections will be an out of pocket expense. Darin no longer is able to work and is on disability so this added financial cost of cancer is quite overwhelming to say the least." And this will add up .

Here is his story and I thank all my friends for any support they may be able to help with. 

" I first noticed a lump in my neck in January of 2017, while we were on the mission field serving in Haiti. Of course, there is no health care there so I kind of ignored it.  It got worse and in October of 2017, I came back to Canada to get it checked out.  They did some tests and took a biopsy, and it was determined that I had Squamous Cell Carcinoma with a tumour at the base of my tongue. I had an operation on my tongue to remove the tumour and at the same time they opened my neck on both sides and removed many lymph nodes. A few weeks later the doctor told me that they got everything and that I was cleared to go back to Haiti. 

 

I was good for almost a year and then I noticed lumps starting to grow under my chin and in my neck.  At that time, I went to a hospital in Haiti to have a hernia operated on by a team of Canadian doctors and the surgeon looked at my lumps and told me I needed to get back to Canada to get them checked out because he said it looks like the cancer had come back.

 

At that time, we were working with a church organization in Haiti, and we had all our expenses and medica, along with life insurance, provided along with a small salary.  During that year we made the difficult decision to leave our paid position and start to care for abandoned orphans and street children that we discovered.  So, we left our paid position and went out on our own with no salary or medical coverage to take care of these orphans and help the staff that worked with them.

 

So, in December of 2018, I went back to Canada and it was determined that the cancer indeed had returned.

 

In April of 2019, I started my 35 radiation treatments as well as chemotherapy.  I weathered through that with severe burns and subsequent scars to my neck because of the radiation. My voice box was also damaged and for period I couldn't speak at all. Now, I have a voice, but it is no longer my normal one.

 

That treatment seemed to take care of the lumps in my neck and again I thought I was free and clear. However, I soon discovered through routine tests that I was not clear, and that the cancer had spread to my lungs.  At this time, they diagnosed me with Stage 4 cancer meaning that it will be with me the rest of my life.

 

The doctors then put me on Immunotherapy to strengthen my own immune system to help contain the cancer from growing and/or spreading. This gave me some great hopes.  However, in November of 2019 I started getting pains in the back of my neck.  In January of 2020, while my wife was still in Haiti taking care of our orphans, the pain was getting bad. It was discovered that I had an auto immune disease and a reaction to the immuneatherapy and that my neck was separating from my head. Tonya was again in Haiti and I was going through life and doing my normal things like carrying firewood and doing wood working.  An X-ray determined that my head was about to fall off and I drove myself to the hospital in Windsor where they rushed me to the large hospital in Halifax.  It was discovered that my 2nd and 3rd vertebrae separated, and my brain stem was left dangling.  They put me in traction screwing posts into my head and hanging a 15 lb weight from it to try and pull my neck apart into alignment so they could do surgery.  They did the surgery and had to put a plate in my neck with screws to hold everything in place.  This severely limited my movement and mobility.  While in the hospital it was discovered that I had pneumonia...again...AND that I would not be able to drink liquids or swallow food anymore. I needed to have a permanent feeding tube put in my stomach. I went into surgery soon after having my neck fused to insert this stomach tube in. I woke from that procedure with my mouth and jaw locked open. I had to have medical intervention for that as well. All through this I told Tonya to stay in Haiti and take care of our children as they needed her more and our children could take care of me here in Halifax.

 

I managed to get recover as best as I could from that incident and the cancer continued to grow on my lungs and lymph nodes in my chest.  The immunotherapy was stopped, and, in August of 2020, I started another round of chemotherapy, which I am still taking.  I have had several more scans and it was determined that at one point the tumour was the size of an orange and then had shrunk to the size of a large blueberry.  Wow.  I am now waiting for the results of my last CT scan to determine if it has shrunk even more so I can possibly take a break from this chemotherapy.  In all this I have my weight has gone from 173 lbs when I first got cancer to 114 lbs. I have also lost all hair on my body.

 

Last week on May 4th I was in Halifax for my latest chemotherapy treatment and when I woke up in the morning, I noticed that my left arm was hurting, and it had started to swell and turn purple.  Because I was in Halifax staying at the Sobey’s Cancer Center I was less than 1 km from the hospital, and I rushed over to emergency.  It was determined that I had a blood clot in my neck, and it was cutting off blood flow to my arm. 

 

They have now put me on blood thinners through daily injections for an undetermined period.

 

Over the past couple of years because we chose to go out on our own and leave our paid position this meant that I had no salary or medical plan and had to go on disability. So, this blood thinner that I am on I must pay for myself.  I am trying to get help from the system, but I was told that I do not qualify for complete coverage. Each daily injection will cost about $30.

 

All the while we continue to take care of the orphanage and our children in Haiti even though I have not been able to go back there because of my health.

 

I am not sure what the future holds for me and my health, but I have placed all my faith and trust in God. I know that He will take care of me.

 

When a man loses his job and is unable to work it really takes a toll on him physically and mentally.  For a long time, I have been wondering what my purpose in life is. After much time and prayer, I do believe I got the answer. My purpose is now to live through this suffering and the horror of having Stage IV cancer and try to inspire and encourage others going through their struggles be it cancer, some other illness, or troubles.  I have heard from many people that I have encouraged them in some way. This, believe it or not, makes all that I have gone through worthwhile. I hope and pray that I can still help many, many more before God is done with me on this earth." 

❤️