Hello

I have a friend of 20 years, who was recently diagnosed with Stage Two Oral Cancer. He was never a tobacco user. Brad Whitaker is a single Dad, to an amazing daughter who has had her own share of medical concerns in the last 8 years. Now Brad faces up to six months of being out of work. His employer of 15 years do not offer sick leave or medical insurance. He has applied for Oregon Paid Leave and Oregon Family Medical. The wait time on those is up to four months. In the mean time he will not be working and need to continue to pay his bills. Brad has been an auto technician, working at two places in Tillamook in the last 26 years. He goes out of his way to help those with car issues. Once he drove to Neskowin to help me when my car stopped working. At that time I didn't really know him. He is the guy who will help you out without thinking of himself.

His care is with OHSU in Portland, Oregon. He has a good team of doctors. In April, Brad noticed a small cold sore on his tongue. After a routine root canal, it became worse. In May he started seeing doctors at OHSU, within a month or less he went from cold sore to Stage Two Oral Cancer. Oral cancer, which includes cancers of the mouth and throat, affects roughly 58,500 Americans annually, with about 12,250 deaths resulting from the disease. His recent CT and PET Scan showed that his lymph nodes are now affected.

Friday July 11, 2025 he will undergo surgery. This is expected to be 10-12 hours long. They will be removing half of his tongue, then reconstructing it with muscle from his arm then they will remove the lymph nodes. His hospital stay is 10-13 days, then recovery and time off work is 6-8 months. In the duration of healing he still has bills to pay, and travel expenses to Portland. Any donation will help in his recovery with reduction in stress of worrying about the financial situation. All funds will go to Brad to help with medical, travel and current living expenses.