On August 23, 2017, my stepdad Tom Rafferty was diagnosed with stage 4 liver and colon cancer. After 4 long years and 62 rounds of chemotherapy, he has made the decision to stop receiving treatments. At this point, they were causing more harm than good as his cancer numbers kept increasing, and so did the taxing side effects from the chemo.

Since being diagnosed, Tom has been unable to work. In the meantime, my mom has worked as a caregiver in a nursing home, but has had to take intermittent leaves-of-absence from her job in order to take him to his oncologist in Hershey, PA every other week for treatments and other appointments. As you can imagine, going through this cycle consistently for the past 4 years has left them with an extremely limited income to pay bills, buy groceries, and care for their 16-year-old son Zachary.

I’ve created this GoFundMe to help ease the financial strain that cancer has put on my family. The money raised will be put towards bills and household expenses, as well as providing Tom with the most comfortable end-of-life care possible.