Hi, my name is Chau, and this is my dad, Vu Nguyen. We come from Pleiku, a small city in the Vietnamese highlands. He has a wife, two adult children (me and my brother), a two-year-old granddaughter (my daughter), and numerous extended family members. He worked hard as a truck driver all of his life to support us, facing long hours and exposure to hazardous chemicals. He was recently forced to retire at age 61, several years before mandatory retirement, due to health issues. For over two weeks now he's been unable to eat and lost about 10 kg (22 lbs), and last week he went for an examination and learned he has late stage 3 stomach cancer. He's getting weaker every day, and without urgent treatment he will not survive.

Local health insurance is nowhere near enough to cover the treatment he needs. And in Vietnam, if you don't have the money to pay for treatment up front, you're sent home. In the case of cancer, this is a death sentence.

We managed to borrow enough money for his first surgery, but it didn’t go well. The tumor was too big and got stuck to his pancreas, so the doctor couldn’t remove it. They only managed to perform a gastrojejunostomy to connect his stomach to his jejunum, a part of the small intestine, so he can eat to recover enough to prepare for chemotherapy, which will hopefully shrink the tumor enough that it can be removed.

We really need money to cover his chemotherapy and his second surgery. The good news is that this surgery costs a fraction of what it would cost in the US. The bad news is that my parents are on fixed incomes and have already used up their savings paying for his first surgery. Nobody else in the family has enough money to spare. Luckily a friend of mine from the US was able to create this fundraiser to help us reach out to people who can help us support him.

My dad has spent his whole life taking care of his family. All of us have looked forward to him spending his old age among family and friends, especially my young daughter. Please donate so my dad can live longer and spend more valuable time with his loved ones. Thank you all.