Keith's Pancreatic Cancer Battle

On October 19th, 2020 my family was struck with news that shattered our lives forever, after being rushed to the emergency room my father, Keith, received news nobody ever wants to hear, a cancer diagnosis. After a great series of tests and scans he was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of Pancreatic Cancer. My father was the breadwinner of our family, my mother is disabled and I am a college student making minimum wage. Now, rather than focusing on fighting his cancer, my father is terrified of the burden he has placed on my mother and I. At this point our family is putting out more than what is coming in, even after cutting back to just the bare necessities. My father, is a shadow of his former self; he is incredibly weak and at times can barely walk due to the extreme pain the tumors are causing him. He is now unable to work and we have signed him up for Social Security/Disability and he has been approved, but he is now facing a six month waiting period before he can receive benefits (April 2021.) My father has an additional stressor, the pile of medical bills that are adding up and the impending expiration of his health insurance. His employer has agreed to continue paying it until the end of the year, but after that point he will be uninsured. We attempted to sign him up for Medicare, but you have to be disabled for two years before you are eligible and this sudden change in his income does not allow us to sign him up for Medicaid yet. We have signed him up at Healthcare.gov, but the rates for these plans and their deductibles are astronomical and are impossible to afford until his Social Security kicks in. My family and I are rarely the type to ask for assistance, but in this instance, it is a must; this is the difference between him being able to continue getting his medication as well as his chemo treatments and suffering. We want to give my father a fighting chance and ease his worries so that he can focus on this fight!!! Thank you all for hearing our story, every dollar counts! God bless!