Pat Cariglio’s Fearless Fight

In July 2018 Pat Cariglio was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. Although the diagnosis terrified and shocked him, he quickly faced his reality and received his first aggressive chemo treatment in late August. Within 10 days of that initial treatment, he underwent emergency surgery resulting in many medical complications.  He remained hospitalized for 2 weeks (which included his birthday). When he was finally released to go home, he was told he would have to wait 6 weeks to receive his next treatment so that his body would have time to heal from the surgery.  He waited in angst, and in early October, Pat continued his, seemingly endless, chemo treatments every other week.  To date he has received hundreds of hours of chemotherapy, has been hospitalized 3 more times and has had many complications.  He is currently awaiting his doctors' approval to perform 3 additional surgeries, once his tumors shrink.

Although it was his intention to return to work (in the future when his treatments were completed), unfortunately, he went on Long-Term Disability instead, in the early part of 2019. In June there was more bad news.  He learned that his employer (where he was a dedicated and hard-working employee for the last 40 years) was terminating his employment.  He took that news very hard and it crushed him down to his soul.  The result of losing his job, subsequently resulted in his loss of all of his benefits, including medical coverage.  It was unimaginable to him to battle cancer with no health insurance, and having no other options, he enrolled in COBRA.  He is currently paying astronomical premiums each month to maintain his health coverage.

Now one year later, the COBRA costs, endless medical bills, co-pays, medical supplies, out-of-pocket expenses, etc. are piling up and it is difficult to pay for basic living expenses.   This financial burden has added an enormous amount of stress to an already devastating situation for Pat and Marianne.  They are so very grateful for the outpouring of love, support and generosity that they have received from their family and friends.  Still, so many have asked how they can help, which is the purpose of this fundraising effort.  We are seeking help to aid them in paying their COBRA premiums and related medical expenses. Please share this page with anyone that knows Pat and Marianne and who might want to help them.  They exemplify the true meaning of friendship and kindness, and have always been the first ones to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. Now it’s our turn to return the kindness and generosity to them, our loving and giving friends who really need our assistance.

Pat’s goal this past year was to ride in the “Closer to Free” cancer ride on September 7 (which falls on his birthday) but, unfortunately, he is unable to ride his bike this year.  We are all praying for him to be able to ride next year!

THANK YOU!