Help Our Dad Beat Cancer

Hi there! For those of you looking at this GoFundMe page who don't know us personally, my name is Simone Bazos, I am 28 years old. My little sister is Racquel. We are trying to raise money for our dad, Konstantinos Bazos, who was diagnosed with Stage IVB Pancreatic Cancer on October 27, 2015. 

The first few months of his illness were very touch and go. Surgery was attempted to remove the tumor, but during the operation the doctors saw that the cancer had spread too much to safely operate on. It was unclear that he would make it to Christmas. 

He began an intensive chemotherapy treatment at the Sinai Cancer Institute. Thankfully after many months of treatment, though very physically weakened, the cancer in his body was responding to the chemo and shrinking. 

Dad just began a new type of treatment called Cyberknife therapy, which like chemo has extremely taxing side effects, but may be able to kill the cancer for at least a few years.

With more than 70% of people dying within the first year of this diagnosis, we are so grateful that he is here today and unbelievably awed by how he has handled everything. 

On top of his health issues, it has been an extremely difficult year for Dad financially. He has been unable to work since his diagnosis and has been barely scraping by. I work as much as I can to help but there is only so much I can do to cover all of the surmounting costs. As a single father trying to put my little sister through college he was already struggling before the cancer, now he really needs our help. 

All funds raised through this GoFundMe will go directly to covering our dad's basic cost of living for food, rent and utilities as well as all medical expenses. 

I cannot even begin to explain how much this would mean to all three of us. I know our dad is constantly worried about his financial situation and if through the help of your donations we could alleviate some of that stress, it would mean the world to us.

All year I have thought about using the internet to crowdsource some funds for him but I generally feel so uneasy about the internet and am very modest about money. But the time has come that I have to put that aside because he really needs help, more than I can give him. 

Thanks for taking time to read and if you are able to donate double triple thank you with a cherry on top.


UPDATE: 1/24/17

Hi everyone! Dad has recently moved his care to Johns Hopkins, where he started another intensive round of chemotherapy. Unfortunately they found in his last scan that the tumor began growing again. 

For those of you don't know our dad was born and raised in Greece where his sister, aunts, uncles and cousins all still live, most of whom he hasn't seen in years. 
My dad has always wanted to go to Greece with his two daughters to see the rest of his family and visit the places where he grew up with us. (Left to right: Our grandfather, grandmother, Dad's the tall guy in the middle, and his sister on the right. This was taken in 1975, Dad was 17!)

With the urgency of his situation increasing and the viciousness of the disease, I want to try and make that dream come true, with all additional funds raised, as soon as possible, because realistically we don't know how much longer we will have. 

We are all so thankful the money so far is helping cover the cost for nearly two months of rent! Outside covering a few additional living costs (ie. electric, water bills, groceries, medicines) the rest of the money raised in the next two month will go towards purchasing plane tickets for dad and us, two sisters to go to Greece with him on a final trip home.