Pray & Bless Allen "Bongo" Bonaguro

Allen "Bongo" Bonaguro was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 10 years ago. Just as the history of cancer diagnosis goes, as we’ve all seen on TV or documentaries, maybe even experienced within our families or friends, it’s devastating!

Here’s what my beloved brother has gone though. At the age of 43 he was the picture of health. He was very active in his children’s lives and devoted to them and his wife of 30 years. Allen was a coach for his son’s Pee-wee, middle school and high school football teams. That was one of the many things he is passionate about. His daughter also benefited from his passionate spirit always encouraging her to be her best scholastically
and now she’s an honor student in high school. His life was truly blessed and all with a bright future. Until the diagnosis.

He had started a full time job as a purchasing agent for a high end government contractor and was in his third month. One evening, at a team building event he had an accident, a go cart ran over his right fibula resulting in a deep bruise. Struggling with recovering from that injury for months, he began to grow weaker and thinking it was a result of not being as active as normal that was not the case. Finally, he went to the doctor to check on why
his health continued to degrade and after several visits the dreadful news came. The diagnosis was Multiple Myeloma, a very rare type of cancer that affects the bone marrow and the plasma that produces antibodies. He was given no more than 18 months to live. We were told that this particular disease is found in people 21 to 30 years his elder. So at that point the treatments started. The one positive news was his age and being much younger than others with the same cancer, so there the hope that his youth would be an advantage to help him withstand a more aggressive approach to the
treatment. Well, it has worked so far. He has surpassed the initial dire diagnosis, under consistent monitoring and two bone marrow transplants, he is still with us. Yet, as you can imagine he has paid a huge price to survive. Once a man of good stature, 240 lbs. and 6’0”, now stands at 5’8” and weighs a mere 160 lbs. He walks with a cane and has to be careful not to break any bones because it could be fatal.

Now, enough of his physical condition, let me tell you how this journey has affected them financially and what the family has had to endure. Our family is a middle income family and have helped as much as our finances would allow us. But as you can imagine, cancer is devastating to a budget, so here are the facts to date. The family’s home has fallen in disrepair, a slab leak has forced them to turn the water main only when they need to use water and there are many more maintenance issues that have had to be ignored. Living with two incomes can be tough enough but they have been down to one since his diagnosis. He gets tired driving just ten miles and spends his days weakened by the medications. Now, their home has been foreclosed on and they need to move soon. Needless to say, this is a family that could use financial help.

Allen doesn’t know that my son and I are making this plea for them and hope to keep it that way as long as possible. Moral support doesn’t pay the mortgage. They need to see some hope for their future no matter how long it may be.

So, if you could see a way in your heart to help them in any way financially, no matter how much, it would be the big gest blessing to them. The blessing of hope! Our prayer is that with that hope, the strain of just having a decent place to live would ease some of the stress in their journey.

We don’t know how long he has left, but the fact that he has survived this long gives us some hope that a cure will be found in time for him to hug his future grandchildren to live, love and laugh for decades to come.

Thank you and God Bless Allen, his strong wife Robin and his amazing 2 children Blake and Breil.