Kraken Down on Cancer-Tadd's fight against Hodgkins Lymphoma

Hi I am Shauna Benoit and I am writing to tell you about my brother Tadd Benoit. My brother has always been someone I’ve looked up to, who truly gives me a level of achievement to strive for. Tadd graduated from Schodack Central School District in 2008, where he participated in the BOCES program for machining and manufacturing. At the age of 16, while attending school full time he also began to work at Curtis Lumber. He has always had a strong work ethic in all that he sets his mind to. Just before his graduation Tadd was nominated by teachers for multiple awards. He received three awards and was honored by his teachers’ recognition of his diligence and determination. While balancing school and work Tadd obtained the highest rank attainable in Boy Scouts, the Eagle Scout Award; of which only four percent of scouts achieve. The focus of his project was to benefit the Schodack Landing firehouse. As a junior member starting at the age of 16 years old, he knew this is who he wanted to give back to. He renovated, restored, and brought back to life the main meeting room in the firehouse. This created a funding stream for the firehouse as they could now rent their facilities out to the community. These funds could purchase much needed equipment. As a very active member of the volunteer fire department this was something that was near and dear to his heart. In this time Tadd had to learn basic skills of first aid, fire fighting skills and even became an interior fireman. Tadd completed extensive training and went to all kinds of specialized trainings as well. These skills gave him a sense of purpose, duty, and community. He even made sure to start getting younger kids interested to keep the generations volunteering. Tadd has always had the need to help others around him in any way that he can. His dedication to volunteering has been an asset to the community over the years. After high school, Tadd moved to New Jersey for a while to attend a diving school. He not only was in college full time, but worked a full time schedule as well. His lifelong love of being in the water helped to guide him into his profession. Combining his new diving skills with his past manufacturing and welding skills, Tadd joined the divers union as an underwater welder. Again, Tadd found a sense of family and community within the union of divers and has made many lifelong connections. As a brotherhood they look out for one another both at work and at home. The support they give to one another is unmatched by any other profession. When Tadd met the love of his life, Christina, she was welcomed into that family as well. Christina brought Tadd back to a country living lifestyle in Germantown, New York and they began to thrive together. In 2019 Tadd and Christina were happily married at Catskill Point on the Hudson River and complete with fireworks. As they grew their life together they chose to start a family. Finding out that he was going to be a dad was an exciting time and even more so when we found out it was going to be a boy. Christina had to navigate some health complications through the pregnancy and Tadd was by her side through every step. With all of the hectic covid mandates the stress was overwhelming for everyone. We weren’t sure that Tadd could even be in the room for his child’s birth, but when the time came he was able to be by his wife’s side. A beautiful little boy, Cole, was born and welcomed to the Benoit family.

Continuing his work in the divers union Tadd then got a job offshore. This meant that he was on a large ship for several weeks out in the middle of the ocean. He was working on putting windmills in the ocean for clean energy. This was a difficult time for Christina as she was home and being a single parent while he was away for so long. Although it was a difficult time for the family, they knew his sacrifice was crucial to the environment that their son and future generations would be growing up in. Again Tadd’s dedication to community and others ran deep within his intentions. Throughout this time, the family began to notice delays in Cole’s speech and development. Knowing he needed to be evaluated through the county they began the process but, unfortunately, he was not “deficient enough” to receive speech services. The family continued to struggle communicating with Cole and his frustration began to shape his daily behaviors. Tadd and Christina tried to pay for outside help to get him the services he so desperately needed. After exhausting all avenues available to them, they unfortunately had to wait until his third birthday to have him reevaluated.

The Benoit family has always been very close knit and spend a lot of time with one another. With that being said, I tell you of the night that it all changed. We went out to dinner sometime in January 2024 just to get together. Before we even started dinner Tadd had an odd reaction to his beer. It sparked a conversation about how he had started to have this reaction between Thanksgiving and Christmas just a few weeks prior. We all urged him to go to the doctors because it seemed odd that he was having an allergic type reaction to ALL alcohol. In the next week we all researched and found that this reaction is only indicative of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Not wanting to panic, we chose to hope for a different outcome and waited to see what the doctor said. That one appointment quickly turned into multiple appointments, specialists, bloodwork, and a scan. In February 2024, Tadd was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and needed to have surgery as well as chemo treatments. The first surgery was to remove a mass between his sternum and heart and send it out for biopsy to confirm. This was a difficult surgery that kept Tadd out of work. Immediately starting the process for chemo meant lots of doctor appointments, more bloodwork, and no time to be able to work. We have all tried to help and support in every way possible, but unfortunately the financial burden is becoming too much for anyone to really help with. So as Tadd goes to chemo treatments and Cole starts preschool with speech services, Christina becomes the sole provider for their household. The financial and emotional strain and pain this has taken on this family is something we hope no one ever has to experience.

At this time we are looking to our community to return the favor and help support Tadd, Christina, and Cole in their fight. Help us make sure they do not lose anything in the process and can feel the support and love that they so deserve.

We chose to represent Tadd’s fight with an image of a kraken, with the diver down flag across it. This symbolizes that a diver is in the water and the Kraken is the “monster” or cancer that he is fighting. Please join us in “Kraken Down on Cancer!”