Hi everyone my name is Kayla and if you know me you know how deeply I care for Jonathan Hughes, my boyfriend. We’ve been together for about 4 years and do absolutely everything together. Jonathan is 21 years old and will be attending medical school in the fall of 2022! He is very excited to serve as a doctor one day and looks forward to providing care to those in need. 

This past November he went to the doctor concerned about a lump on the left side of his tongue that wouldn’t go away. Unfortunately, it came back as stage three squamous cell carcinoma,which is an aggressive metastasizing cancer. Following that diagnosis he underwent an intensive surgery to remove about 1/3 of his tongue. The surgeons also removed a flap from his left forearm to reconstruct his tongue and 29 lymph nodes from the left side of his neck. His surgery was very successful and they were able to get clear margins around the tumor. We are so thankful that all the lymph nodes came back negative for cancer, but during the pathology of his tumor and margins they found very early signs of pre cancer in the nerves and blood vessels within the margins that were removed. Since there are early signs of cancer the doctors have recommended he undergo radiation, which will begin in January of 2022. Because this has happened at the end of 2021 and he will be receiving care at the beginning of 2022, his family has to pay their out of pocket maximum for insurance twice, which adds up to $17,000. This is very expensive and even harder to manage during the holidays. Our family wants to ask for a little help managing these costs and if you can’t donate please pray and share to everyone you know. We are so extremely thankful for any help people can give, no amount is too small. We hope everyone has a Happy Holidays and wonderful New Year! 

With love, 

Kayla