Love Knows No Bounds Help Cliff Fight Cancer

Cliffy, my love for you knows no bounds:

My respect for you is equally immense. You are my ultimate emotional support and my sweetest friend. Every memory from the gone years, makes me glad that you are my brother. I don't look up to you because you are a brother who demands respect. I look up to you because you are a brother who deserves it. I love you Bub! I hope you don’t mind me setting this up for you. I know you would never ask this of someone even though you really need it. You’ve always lived humbly and always within your means. I hope this will help lift some of the weight from your shoulders so that you can focus on getting well and kicking cancer’s butt.

❤️ Cece aka DB

My brother Cliff celebrated his 49th birthday yesterday on the 9th of July. We were not able to gather to celebrate it but we still managed to share a heartfelt phone call in the morning. One where you hold onto every word because you know the importance of the moment. And as many of you now know, Cliffy has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Only recently has he been diagnosed and a lot needs to be learned about his condition. The doctors have told him it was inoperable and terminal. Though the news seems grim we still hold a great hope in our hearts that he will be healed.

We truly feel there is a silver lining in all of this and we are exactly where we are supposed to be. Though, that might be difficult to fathom, our hearts have to remain open and we have to be willing to see the miracles and signs all around us.

So far beautiful things have already manifested… in the forms of old friends getting together and sharing some good healing laughs. Cousins paying visits & providing helpful insight to the disease & a diet that can combat it. Messages & phone calls of support and love. Tears… many tears shed of unexpressed love. Generosity of great friends & family. These are only a few of the beautiful things already taking place and in motion.

It is my hope that Cliffy’s journey isn’t in vain and that it can help enlighten all us to get healthy, practice preventative care, repair the relationships that need repairing, to ignite a fire within us to do the things we always wanted to do, to be closer to one another, to forgive, to let go of resentment, to be more understanding & less judgmental, more patient, to be open to help from others, to grow our relationships with ourselves, with one another as well as with a higher power/ universe, and to remember to see the beauty in being alive. Life is gift and my brother Cliffy has been some of the best parts of my life. Many of you can agree that he’s been that for you as well.

It’s always hard for me to ask people for help, especially financial help for members of my family. We’ve always seem to managed to find a way without help from others and relied on our own true grit. And like my brother Garrette said “this one is much bigger than me! I can’t fix this with my hands!” So I ask you all to keep our dear brother Cliffy in your daily prayers and your thoughts. We appreciate any kind of love or support that you can offer at this time. If you are the praying type, send them up. If you appreciate a good glass of wine, raise a glass to Cliffy until the next time you can share one with him face to face. Mostly, please keep Cliffy & the family close to your heart, and send us all of your positive thoughts for his healing and recovery. Any donations to this site will go to Cliffy to help with his expenses. Donations will pass through my account so that in the event that Cliffy becomes incapacitated, we can still put them towards his needs. Any money left over will go towards paying down his debt and the care of his furbaby Mags. Anything left after that will go towards a “once in a lifetime” trip. Not having traveled much, many places are still a goal of his to see. Today on our call he voiced to me his desire to ski the Alps, visit Switzerland, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, Bora Bora and Italy. I would like to see him beat cancer and to celebrate his victory with a trip around the world.

Over the next few months, Cliffy will have many expenses, including utility bills, gas & travel expenses, medical bills, treatment co-pays, and any medical equipment or home adjustments that may be required to provide a safe home for him as he undergoes alternative treatments and a strict clean diet.  It is a possibility that a paid nurse will be needed to help care for Cliffy during treatment.

Cliffy is in this for his life but it’s only the beginning, much still needs to be researched. Stem cell & immunology therapies are still possibilities as well as non-government/ government funded programs. Unfortunately many of these require the family to front a minimum of $60,000 in addition to other expenses, insurance doesn’t typically cover this and Cliffy is no longer working.  Our hope is that these treatments work. To lessen his burden, we hope that we can gather some funds to put towards this treatment and the medical and travel expenses that he and the family will accrue. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS! Any left over funds will be put into a trust fund.

The past few years have been a rollercoaster of emotions worldwide because of trying events and illness. My family hasn’t gone without these challenges either. Both mom & dad have suffered strokes & had dramatic falls resulting in lasting injuries. My eldest brother was challenged medically too & was very very sick but thankfully seems to be on the other side of it now. So with Cliffy now being sick, I just feel like WTF. Only thing that one can do is not give up, try to laugh…and count blessings. As they say, we have to go through the storm to appreciate the sunshine!

What most people do not know about Cliffy is that he has a natural talent for writing… short stories, songs and poems. He even wrote a children’s book for his niece Avalena. Cliffy is known by his friends, family and church for his warm smile, hearty laugh, silly sense of humor and his love for his family. He can make me laugh like no other and we often spend time giggling at the silliest of things. He is a devoted servant of God who will need every bit of his incredible strength, faith and courage as he faces what might be the toughest battle of his life. With his brother Garrette by his side, he is ready to fight a formidable foe:

stage 4 colon cancer.

The last few years have been tough on Cliffy and things were finally getting back on track for him when he started feeling ill. He just started a new job after an extended period of unemployment, likely influenced by his current illness.  He was starting to find his feet again, then bam! Life’s challenges came knocking. Initially, Cliffy thought he had Covid. His symptoms just wouldn’t go away. He tested 4 times and all results were negative for Covid. He tried to make contact with a doctor but they didn’t have any availability for 6 weeks. Meanwhile he suffered from a deep chest cough, head aches, an unquenchable thirst for water, severe sweats, lightheadedness, weight loss of 50 + lbs, and continued to grow sicker with each passing day. We discussed the possibility of him having Hepatitis A from contaminated strawberries (recent recall) because he had symptoms of liver failure (yellowing of skin, dark orange urine). Over the phone the doctor told him she suspected he had diabetes. Cliffy monitored himself and none of his glucose tests were above the normal range. Diabetes was not the culprit. With a promise he made to me, he took himself to the ER where they ran a full gamut of tests on him. While there they discovered masses on his liver. This prompted the drs to run further tests. Those results came back with confirmation of stage 4 colon cancer and that it had metastasized. A diagnosis much different from the initial thought of hepatitis A. Needless to say it hit him in his solar-plexus. After a few days of feeling the cancer shockwave, he dusted himself off and decided he would give it a good fight. We wasn’t going to give up… and neither were we.

Since then he has done a brutal gallbladder liver cleanse and several colonics in the hopes that it would rid his body of all the toxins. He is also juicing and eating a strict vegan diet. He will soon start incorporating a regimen of expensive treatments.

We are so grateful for all of the family & friends who have reached out to help with offers of gift cards, grocery delivery, and plans for a meal train. A huge thank you to our brother Garrette for taking on the difficult task of being the “go to” person and for helping Cliffy juice every day. Being the “go to guy” carries a heavy load and will be tremendously taxing.  Also because of Garrette, Cliffy has a roof over his head and isn’t homeless.  Please pray for Garrette as well. Also a huge thank you to our aunt Nancy who helped facilitate the much needed colonics, our cousin Joey for providing a personal experience of his own battle which gave Cliffy proof that one can beat this horrible disease. Also thank you to Cliffy’s childhood friends that acted swiftly in providing healing laughter and much needed gifts of comfort. Last but not least thank you all for taking the time to read Cliff’s story, for praying for him, for keeping him in your thoughts and for being cheerleaders in the time of need. We are forever grateful.

With great love anything is possible.