Support Christopher Matthews' Battle with Glioblastoma

Hi, my name is Christina and I am the proud daughter of Christopher Matthews who was just diagnosed with Glioblastoma Grade 4 at the age of 57 and given 18 to 24 months to live. He was reporting symptoms from 2 years ago

but was told everything was normal. We are kindly asking for donations that will go towards my mother in order to assist in anyway possible to treat my dad. People knows him as the funny, loud, sarcastic, Yankee obsessed New Yorker. He is literally my twin and the reason why I am very outspoken and maybe too honest. My father dedicated 20 years in the Marine Corps to help protect his country but unfortunately he was exposed to burn pits and other environmental risk factors during his deployments that we believe contributed to this rare cancer which normally presents in your sixties. Those who deployed to Afghanistan and/or Iraq are 26% more likely than the general population to develop Glioblastoma, the third most common cancer related deaths among active duty population (Military.com, 2022). My family and I are beyond devastated. I pictured my dad dying as an old man not this young. He was the best father and grandfather given his circumstances of being a young father in active duty. I lost a lot of time with him during childhood due to him being in the military but boy did he make it up as a grandfather. My parents rescued me from a domestic violence situation and it’s because of them I was able to not only recover but become a nurse practitioner. I feel extremely guilty that he spent his entire twenties and thirties raising my sister and I and then his forties and fifties assisting in raising his grandchildren so I was able to work in order to put my children through private Catholic school and for me to recieve multiple degrees. He was the best male role model for my children. He would constantly pick my children up from school and take them to their sport activities if I was unable to. Losing this battle is NOT an option. We will defeat it. My father will walk both his daughters down the aisle. He will grow into an old man.

Young and Dying: Veterans Are Getting Brain Cancer and Struggling to Get Benefits (2022).Kime, P. Retrieved from https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/01/11/young-and-dying-veterans-are-getting-brain-cancer-and-struggling-get-benefits.html?amp