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Leo’s fight of his life - against Cancer Stage 4!
My name is Liana Morris and I have started this “Go Fund Me” on behalf of my good friend’s Leo Schouwenberg and his wife Alexandra Schouwenberg. This is the first time, I have ever asked for our community to step in and help this kind and humble couple with financial assistance for rental money and their medical bills.
Here is their story before coming to America and during their stay here in America. It is lengthy but very interesting and humbling, please read all the way through it.
Below is their story of trying to get to the USA.
They owned a Cutting Horse Facility in Germany that offered boarding, training, breeding, selling, showing horses, organized horses shows and events. Leo won quite a few international Championship titles showing cutting horses.
They first time they came to California was in 2003, to buy Cutting horses for customers and import them to Germany. They came to see my cutting mare and purchased it for his wife Alex as her personal horse. Soon our friendship began and has continued on to this day. We stayed in contact all the time while they lived in Germany.
His wife Alex states, “My husband has a passion for working with horses. This is what brought us to California in the first place. In Germany Leo spend many hours doing riding therapy with autistic teenagers.”
After numerous challenges in coming to the US to fulfill their dreams (through Canada at first), Leo and Alexandra came to the US (arriving in Jan. 2016) and Leo worked as a horse trainer and later got a Job offer at a Pest Control Company. After 1.5 years of working there Leo and Alexandra decided to start their own Rodent Exclusion Business in September 2019. He is very successful at doing his own business and has created a great clientele.
In January 2021, Leo began feeling discomfort in his stomach. After multiple doctor’s appointments and tests, Alex had to take him to the ER and was hospitalized. Leo has many complications, a bacterial blood infection, a blood clot in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) that almost took his live, and a bowel obstruction. It was a nightmare. Quoting his oncologist “Leo is a delightful but unfortunate 63-year-old gentleman”.
On February 24th, after surgical biopsy, Leo was diagnosed a Bladder Cancer stage 4 (widely metastatic urothelial carcinoma). He has an extremely aggressive, not curable but treatable cancer. Leo was in the hospital almost four weeks. It was touch and go. When Leo was finally discharged, his dog Sammy and wife were so happy to have him home again. It has been a struggle for them to pay rent and a lot of medical bills are pile up.
He is now receiving aggressive chemotherapy as an outpatient and he will continue cancer treatment for the rest of his life. Since being off, he was unable to work and the bills started to pile up. Leo is now receiving Chemotherapy and responding quite well.
Through no fault of his own, Leo has some complications with his Visa. He applied for assistance with Social Security Disability and for Permanent disability and was denied by all. They do not qualify for any financial help programs, (they did apply for a lot of programs) because of the Visa issues. They were told on the phone basically that is why they cannot get any benefits. But the letters the agencies sent are contradictory and confusing. Not being from the US, the system is very confusing. If we go by the letter, they do qualify as we have all the required documents that they asked for. So, something is not correct with their systems.
They have worked hard to making a decent living, pay taxes since coming to the United States and have done everything the right way. Now they are being denied help because of VISA issues. The documents that we have received for everything to try getting help has been denied.
The doctor treating Leo for the cancer states that he will be PREMANTLY DISABLED.
Leo and Alex love the States, especially California and would like to stay here and become US citizens.
Your help is greatly appreciated!! Please spread the word of Leo’s fight. God Bless You.
My name is Liana Morris and I have started this “Go Fund Me” on behalf of my good friend’s Leo Schouwenberg and his wife Alexandra Schouwenberg. This is the first time, I have ever asked for our community to step in and help this kind and humble couple with financial assistance for rental money and their medical bills.
Here is their story before coming to America and during their stay here in America. It is lengthy but very interesting and humbling, please read all the way through it.
Below is their story of trying to get to the USA.
They owned a Cutting Horse Facility in Germany that offered boarding, training, breeding, selling, showing horses, organized horses shows and events. Leo won quite a few international Championship titles showing cutting horses.
They first time they came to California was in 2003, to buy Cutting horses for customers and import them to Germany. They came to see my cutting mare and purchased it for his wife Alex as her personal horse. Soon our friendship began and has continued on to this day. We stayed in contact all the time while they lived in Germany.
His wife Alex states, “My husband has a passion for working with horses. This is what brought us to California in the first place. In Germany Leo spend many hours doing riding therapy with autistic teenagers.”
After numerous challenges in coming to the US to fulfill their dreams (through Canada at first), Leo and Alexandra came to the US (arriving in Jan. 2016) and Leo worked as a horse trainer and later got a Job offer at a Pest Control Company. After 1.5 years of working there Leo and Alexandra decided to start their own Rodent Exclusion Business in September 2019. He is very successful at doing his own business and has created a great clientele.
In January 2021, Leo began feeling discomfort in his stomach. After multiple doctor’s appointments and tests, Alex had to take him to the ER and was hospitalized. Leo has many complications, a bacterial blood infection, a blood clot in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) that almost took his live, and a bowel obstruction. It was a nightmare. Quoting his oncologist “Leo is a delightful but unfortunate 63-year-old gentleman”.
On February 24th, after surgical biopsy, Leo was diagnosed a Bladder Cancer stage 4 (widely metastatic urothelial carcinoma). He has an extremely aggressive, not curable but treatable cancer. Leo was in the hospital almost four weeks. It was touch and go. When Leo was finally discharged, his dog Sammy and wife were so happy to have him home again. It has been a struggle for them to pay rent and a lot of medical bills are pile up.
He is now receiving aggressive chemotherapy as an outpatient and he will continue cancer treatment for the rest of his life. Since being off, he was unable to work and the bills started to pile up. Leo is now receiving Chemotherapy and responding quite well.
Through no fault of his own, Leo has some complications with his Visa. He applied for assistance with Social Security Disability and for Permanent disability and was denied by all. They do not qualify for any financial help programs, (they did apply for a lot of programs) because of the Visa issues. They were told on the phone basically that is why they cannot get any benefits. But the letters the agencies sent are contradictory and confusing. Not being from the US, the system is very confusing. If we go by the letter, they do qualify as we have all the required documents that they asked for. So, something is not correct with their systems.
They have worked hard to making a decent living, pay taxes since coming to the United States and have done everything the right way. Now they are being denied help because of VISA issues. The documents that we have received for everything to try getting help has been denied.
The doctor treating Leo for the cancer states that he will be PREMANTLY DISABLED.
Leo and Alex love the States, especially California and would like to stay here and become US citizens.
Your help is greatly appreciated!! Please spread the word of Leo’s fight. God Bless You.