Friends of John Vasos Medical Recovery

It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastatingly sad news that our dear friend John Vasos has been diagnosed with the rare cancer known as mesothelioma. This insidious cancer affects many organs of the body and often takes years before it is diagnosed. Worse yet, John’s own diagnosis came particularly late and is at stage 4. Chemotherapy is the current plan in hopes of slowing the spread, and palliative care is what the doctors are aiming towards right now, with no plans for surgery unless and until this current course radically changes matters.  Just recently John endured a brief but scary stay in the hospital, likely the result of the chemotherapy, for a blood clot in his neck. He was treated and released after 5 days.  There have been some rough patches already in what is just the beginning of some tough days ahead.

If you are receiving this message, you know well that John’s work is his essence.  It consumes his day, from sunup to sundown with no regard for a time clock, but it also fulfills him, and having to submit to chemotherapy will not exactly fit in with John’s unrelenting passion for Asteri and its family, of which we are all members. He describes the chemotherapy as draining the life out of him. The physical requirements of his job, the demands he places on himself, his perfectionism all run completely counter to the incredibly time-consuming challenges of chemotherapy. Asteri Motorsports will be forced to take a backseat to mesothelioma while he submits to this treatment. And it may not be long before he could have to accept that he will have to close the shop altogether if his medical team recommends intensive surgery.

Everyone who has taken their car to John knows that, for him, it is a labor of love, and that if he had been paid for all of the work he has done for us over the years, there would be no need for a GoFundMe. John is the kind of guy who drives to a client's house to change a battery or a relay if they are stranded. There really is not anything he would not do for someone in need.  

 
One time a client suffered a flat on a run-flat tire and tried to return from the Upper Peninsula before the tire expired once and for all.  John loaded up two spare snow tires he was already generously storing, drove to Sheboygan in a snowstorm and changed two tires to save someone from waiting all night at a truck stop for a tow home.  John does these things because, to John, his clients aren't just clients; we are his family and that's how he treats us. 

John named his shop Asteri Motorsports from a Greek word for falling star. He is proud of his Greek heritage, and if there is any way that his health allows for it, he would love to be able to take his son, Stephen, and daughter, Emma, to Greece. He could show them about their Greek heritage, and they could all learn more about their ancestry, something he could never take the time to do when he was tirelessly working on our cars.

John will work until the doctors tell him he can’t and probably for a while after that.  Though he is far from giving up the fight, the prognosis for those diagnosed with mesothelioma is not good.  It is our hope that, for every one of you who has had the benefit of John’s tireless effort working to figure out what that noise was, what those small drops on the garage floor are, or why “it just doesn’t feel right,” or had one of the many amazing car experiences at the track or in the shop with John, will take a minute and contribute whatever you can to this GoFundMe.  Your contribution can now help fulfill John when his work no longer can.