Our dear friend Leland Fallon was diagnosed with a rare, metastatic medullary thyroid cancer on Oct 28, 2025. The cancer had been growing for several years, according to doctors, but he did not begin to show heavy symptoms until last summer. He took off work in September and hasn’t been able to return. He underwent an emergency surgery where the docs spent 10+ hours pulling the cancer out of his neck, including several 6cm tumors that had spread into his nerves, voice box, and esophagus. He is scheduled for more surgery in March and is currently home recovering from serious nerve damage, some of it permanent, and multiple side effects. Aiding in this recovery are his surgeons, endocrinologists, oncologist, speech therapist, physical therapist and, most of all, his dear wife, Maggie, who has had to significantly reduce her work schedule to help take care of him.

We first met Leland acting alongside him in multiple plays at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria, Oregon, and the Coaster Theater Playhouse in Cannon Beach, Oregon. He and Maggie moved to Astoria from western Massachusetts in 2021.

Leland is a veteran concert and festival producer who has spent the last 13 years as the West Coast Artist Liaison to Quebec-based Music4Cancer, a festival and a cause that raises badly needed funds for cancer research. Leland joined the organization after witnessing a trial drug study cure his nephew of neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive cancer in kids. Working with founder Jay Epinat, whose mother was also saved by a research study, Leland has helped keep the M4C Festival growing year after year, featuring headliners including Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, Goldfinger, Rancid, The Bouncing Souls, The Interrupters, Dropkick Murphys, and Pennywise.

We put this fundraiser together so the family won't need to struggle under the weight and stress of medical and other bills. Leland is the kind of person who lights up a room with his humor, is nice to everyone, strangers especially, and always has a listening ear and a heart for those who are or have been hurt. In addition to his M4C work, he has used he and Maggie’s small company, Vigilant Artists, to host a number of concerts here in Astoria with his own band, Dumpster Fire Heroes, Beta Voids, The Last Gang, United Defiance, Retroactive Gamma Rays, Jon Snodgrass, Stefan Murphy, The Bar Stool Preachers, Authority Zero, and many others, donating thousands of dollars in the process to the Astoria High School drama department and to the Assistance League of the Columbia Pacific.

For all the good that Leland and Maggie have done for our town, for our scene, and for the greater good, if you are able, please help.

Thank you!