Please Help Joe Fight Leukemia

Big Joe needs your help!  

For those that do not know our Dad here's a little about him.  His name is Joe and he is hands down the best Dad ever.  Pretty much everyone would agree that he has always been the hardest working, most active, most involved, most helpful, most knowledgable, most friendliest person that anybody knows.

I have six siblings and he's always looked out for all of us in each and every way. He's always there to the rescue when one of us has an emergency and he'll always drop whatever he has going on to try to help out.  He is our family's Hero. 

Until he got sick he consistanly worked 55-65 hours a week on average and sometimes more.  That never slowed him down though, he has a never ending to-do list of tasks around the house or with adventures with grand kids etc. He almost never  stops except to sleep.  Despite working all of those hours he rarely buys anything for himself, no new clothes or toys at all.

His favorite hobby is collecting books and audio books, he literally has thousands of them and hes read and listens to them all. He's gone to the library at least twice a month for as long as I can remeber to get more and more books. He's great to conversate with because he knows so much about so many things and places and events etc.

He goes to plays at the local theatre all of the time and he is an active member in the community.  He always has family memberships to the Zoo, the Museum and Frederik Meijer Gardens and more and hes visits them all frequently.   He rarely misses a parade and always has a spot saved for family and friends at the 4th of July fireworks.  He donates to several charity's.   He spends most of his free time with his grand kids because not only is he the best Dad ever but he's also the best Grandpa ever too.

Onto the reason for this.  Our Dad got very sick around New Years Eve and was diagnosed with AML Leukemia.  This came as a terrible shock to our family and especially to our Dad.  The prognosis was not good and he was immeadiately admitted to the the hospital for treatment. 

He started on chemotherapy right away and although hes a very tough man it broke him down very badly.  He was on the brink of death several times and each times he has pulled though with flying colors.   Since then he's been our miracle man.   

He was determined to beat this from the very beginning and he committed to treatment and lifestyle changes and his health improved beyond expectations.  It is now October and he's still going strong.  He lifts weights and has been going for long walks.   Unfortunately the fight still goes on but it's more like a war.  

That's Dad's story in a nutshell, his spirits are very high and he's staying positive.  He never wanted his ordeal to be a public thing, he made it very clear that he did not want his story on social media.   He finally gave in and said that he would let us put his story out there. 

     He's been paying for all of his own medicine and still paying his bills.  After working like a champion for so many years his funds have been completely  depleted.  My  brothers and sisters and I have been taking care of him.  My brother Neil has put just about everything in his life on hold to care for Dad day and night. 

We really need some help!  Dad's treatment is helping him but we cannot keep up with the many costs of this battle.  Please help with whatever you can,  every little  it counts.

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