On April 25, 2025, my dad, David Durham, was diagnosed with Metastatic Cancer and Tonsil/Throat Cancer. He needed surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation as soon as possible. It started as a tiny lump on the side of his neck and within months it had grown significantly. They said this type of cancer is very aggressive and spreads quickly.

Since then, he's had 2 surgeries. The first one was two weeks later; it was to remove the tumor from his neck. During surgery, they found it had spread, and the doctor removed the tumor along with 28 lymph nodes. About 3 weeks after that, he had to have a second surgery to insert a feeding tube and a chemo port.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy started on June 23. He has chemo 1 day a week and radiation 5 days a week for 7 weeks. Because of this, he will eventually lose his taste buds, he'll lose the ability to swallow (why the feeding tube is needed), and it may even affect his speech. He'll be working with a speech therapist through all of this as well to help with that.

He's been so sick from all the treatments—nausea, vomiting, fatigue. But he's still doing his hardest to be there for myself and his parents. He is their caretaker. They're both in their 80s; my Nana is still recovering from hip surgeries, and my Papa just had knee surgery almost 2 weeks ago. All of this happening so quickly has put such a strain on them and their finances with so many medical bills piling up. Please just share this if you can, that's all I hope for… and if you can help donate to them then I would be forever grateful and I know they will too.

UPDATE:

Dad was admitted to the hospital about 2 weeks ago. He is only able to use the feeding tube now for eating, and he couldn’t use it for about 4 days due to nausea and severe stomach pains. He also had weakness, dizziness, light headedness to the point of passing out. By the time we rushed to the hospital he was severely dehydrated and malnourished and could barely walk… They got him back in his feet, but he missed several radiation treatments because of this.

We’re nearing the finish line! He has about 3-4 radiation treatments left… he had to have a new radiation mask made for him because he’s lost almost 50 pounds in several weeks and his mask became way too large for him.

He also has 2 chemotherapy treatments left. Hair is starting to be lost, but Dad never goes without a hat so you can’t tell. They are postponing them for a short time because his kidney function is being affected by the treatments and that’s concerning to the doctors. So more tests are being done before moving forward.

Again any help is much appreciated, even if it’s $5. But we’d also love it if you could just share his story and update! Thank you all so so much