Jack Kingsley is a dear friend and interpreter colleague, as well as a musician and song writer, who loves to talk, sing , laugh and love. In 2019 he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and while he thought everything was under control, at his last check up he found out that his cancer has returned with a vengeance. On October 27, 2020, just a couple of weeks after this finding, he underwent a massive surgery, where they removed his larynx, this is his voice box, and vocal cords, and the whole system of air passage from the nose to the lungs. He will now breathe through a trachea stoma (a hole in his neck) for the rest of his life. Eventually, he should be able to learn to “talk” using his esophagus, but his voice as we know it will be gone forever.
Jack's surgery went well, and he will now be at Vanderbilt hospital for 3 to 5 days (Oct 27-30 or so). The recovery period is very slow, and he will be on a stomach feeding tube for a while.
Jack is self-employed, and will not be able to return to work for a long period of time. Whenever he is able to work, he will have to start from zero, since both of his current ways of making a living involved the very part of his body that has been affected by this cancer.
I don't need to stress how serious and urgent this situation is, and I'm hoping we can help Jack and Denice at least by providing a little piece of mind in the way of some financial support.
Thank you!