Our family’s world was rocked on March 26, 2022 when Tom’s wife, Jeannie, took him to the ER. After an MRI showed serious cause for concern, Tom was rushed by ambulance from San Luis Obispo to UCSF in San Francisco for emergency brain surgery. Jeannie never left his side.

Hours after Tom arrived at UCSF, doctors removed multiple brain tumors. Tom woke up, cracking jokes and missing his family. He and Jeannie spent another two weeks at UCSF to start treatment for stage IV metastatic melanoma. It is serious. It was unexpected. It is not fair.

Tom is a son, brother, nephew, husband, father and friend. He is a hard working, determined, loving and devoted father of three (Mason, 6, Heston 9, and Elaine 12) and husband to Jeannie.

Our family and friends have done our best to step up by taking care of the kids when Tom and Jeannie were in San Francisco for treatment, bringing Jeannie food and necessities when she slept in the UCSF waiting room, and ensuring the kids got to Zoom call with their Dad and Mom as often as possible while they were in SF. Through this emergency, Jeannie has become an expert in Tom’s care. But we need more help.

Please help support Tom, Jeannie, and their children by making a financial contribution to help cover their enormous medical bills, housing costs, and mounting expenses. None of us can make the pain and heartbreak disappear, but together we can ease the financial burden that comes with Tom’s diagnosis. Please, we are asking you to give what you can.

There is plenty to be hopeful for. His treatment is Molecular Targeted Therapy, which seems to be working in shrinking some of the tumors. There are ongoing treatments, MRI’s, body scans, blood work, more medications, and more trips to UCSF. We are hopeful for Tom’s treatment, but with it comes the burden and stress of doctor bills.

We, Joe McDermott, Tom’s brother, and Frankie McDermott, Tom’s aunt, started this GoFundMe to help ease Tom and his family’s burden and to sustain his family through this difficult time. He’s unable to work and on disability. Daily costs we might take for granted–rent, food, gas, insurance, and so on–add up, not to mention the unexpected and astronomical medical costs.

Our whole family is extremely grateful for the thoughts, prayers, and offers of help that have been extended to Tom and Jeannie. We appreciate each and every one of you. You can go to Caringbridge to see Tom’s progress.

There are alternate ways to support Tom: contributing to a meal train, sharing this URL to your social media, or getting in touch with us.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to read and share this story. Thank you for anything that you are moved to contribute.