Keith Hatcher's Battle with Cancer

On March 17, 2014  my father was taken to the hospital from the school where he teaches with stroke like symptoms. Once at the hospital a stroke was confirmed, but why? He didn't have any underlying health issues at the time. After being told we could go home the next day we asked the doctors to address the lingering cough my dad had been experiencing for about 6 weeks. After taking another look at the chest x-ray, the radiologist discovered a very small shadow behind my dads heart. They ordered a chest ct with contrast and found a large mass in his left lung located in his lower lobe. We were told that night to prepare for the worst and it looked like cancer. After multiple biopsies with no answers, on April 29, 2014 dad was diagnosed with Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma with no primary site on the skin. If you do not know a lot about Melanoma then you do not know that it is one of the most aggressive cancers out there with not many treatment options. This came as a complete shock to our family but we still remained hopeful that God was in control. Shortly after we were told we would be starting on an immune boosting chemo called Yervoy. Dad was able to comple all 4 rounds of the Yervoy, which is very hard and uncommon, before we were approved to start a new and stronger drug called PD-1. At the time it was still in clinical trial but since has been FDA approved. Dad's cancer has progressed but the Yervoy has slown the growth. We are now still getting the PD-1 drug and will continue to do so until the tumors completely go away or are small enough to operate. We are still remaining hopeful that we can beat this cancer. Since diagnosis and recieving chemotherapy treatments, Dad is no long able to continue his career teaching at the time. If you do know my dad, you know he is the BEST teacher. He impacts the lives of every student he comes in contact with and is the very reason I will have a career in teaching. As most of you know, not working, equals less income. With any family battling cancer, times can get hard and finances tight. Please help my parents in any way possible. Anything is much appreciated and will go a long way. Also please continue to pray for the strenghth for dad to continue to fight and the patience as we wait for God's plan. Thank you all so much and we really appreciate everything.