Yesterday marked a very devastating day for our family of seven as we received a diagnosis we were not prepared for: Ben has lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s lymphoma (at least stage 3B, potentially stage 4B, we are awaiting an MRI to see if the cancer has begun spreading to his spine which is causing his recent back problems). Lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a very rare form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with less than 500 new cases per year and one out of a million incidence annually.

What started out as typical back pain from an old injury escalated over a few weeks of nonstop work days throughout Tampa Bay, after Florida’s back-to-back hurricanes resulted in restaurants throughout the area calling our food service repair company for service. By mid October that back pain was becoming unbearable and seemed like a different kind of pain with his legs buckling out from under him even more than usual. On October 25th, his back had gotten so bad he couldn’t move much less walk, a new level of pain I’d never seen in him before, which finally gave me enough leverage to talk him into going to the hospital.

That atypical trip to the hospital led to a CT scan that revealed troubling results. That catalyst set into motion weeks of testing and appointments and anxiety, all the while hoping for the best. Through it all we were just trying to pull it together for our Halloween haunt that we put so much heart into for the community, and trying to pull off a good birthday party for our eldest son on the 10th, all while running a company we’ve made so many sacrifices for that seems to *finally* be taking off the ground. But a PET scan, a biopsy, and a week later, yesterday we received the news that our entire life is flipped upside down yet again, after praying for weeks it was anything else while awaiting results.

Anyone close to us knows the setbacks we’ve already faced in the past year or two. Trusting the wrong individuals has put our family through a lot of stress and turmoil, and it’s been a year of putting the pieces back together in hopes of building a legacy for our children through hard work and sacrifices. It was Ben’s innate belief in the goodness of others that forced our hand to venture out into the world of businessownership, which comes with its own world of stress and responsibilities. He’s been putting in 15-18 hour days 7 days a week post hurricanes helping businesses stay in operation after damages from the storms, all the while waiving service fees for those affected, with no one to fall back on to run the company. But that is a story or two in and of itself.

We have no idea where this diagnosis will lead our family. I’ve been a homemaker for over a decade before we started this company, but our society does not value the unpaid labor of women to recognize the work I’ve put into raising and homeschooling five children. Returning to the work force with such limited work history is going to fall short of what our family needs to make ends meet, especially with medical expenses already piling up before treatment has even begun. Meanwhile, Ben foregoing work to undergo treatment jeopardizes this entire company we have poured so much into for over the past year to build. Knowing he has such a late stage of cancer is absolutely terrifying of itself, and knowing how it is going to affect our finances in the coming months adds just another level of fear.

Through everything we’ve been through, Ben has always looked for ways to help others while asking nothing in return. It’s his nature because no one knows better than him what it is to go without. We started from rock bottom and for over a decade have built a good life for our family on our own, through a lot of sacrifices and hard work to guarantee our children would never know what it was to go without. Now we face yet another huge obstacle that has the power to make us lose everything we’ve worked so hard to build. And now it’s time to call in a favor and ask anyone who is able and willing to help to please do so, to help with medical expenses and lost wages as our family starts this journey.