Support Dan's Battle Against Lung Cancer

For those of you who don’t know Dan, he is 62 years old and recently retired from working at Mazda for as long as almost anyone can remember. He is a loving father of 7 kids and has 5 grandchildren. Dan is also a widower, due to losing his wife Kelly to a battle with cancer in 2022.

Dan retired after working hard for his family, wanting nothing more than to enjoy his life after seeing how quickly it can be taken away.  He was committed to running the Marshall’s Creek Fire Company and volunteering at St. Matthew’s Parish in East Stroudsburg warming center, feeding the homeless until a few months ago. Dan has always loved giving back to the community, coaching any sport for any of his kids, helping build a playground at Resica Elementary School, running fire rescue and EMS, and helping by being involved with his church. He was just recognized in March 2025 for 30 years with the Marshall’s Creek Fire Company. Anyone who knows Dan would say that he would do whatever he can for anyone in need; helping them fix a car, giving them a ride, or even giving them the shirt off his back.

In August 2024, Dan felt like he was coming down with a cold that lasted for a few weeks. He went to the doctor and got some antibiotics for what they thought was an infection. And when it continued on, the doctor did an X-ray, which showed he had pneumonia. After finishing the medication for pneumonia, he was still not feeling the best. His doctor ordered a CT, which showed he had a collapsed lung being caused by a tumor, which resulted in a hospital stay in October 2024.

He was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma (lung cancer). He then started an aggressive treatment plan of radiation and chemotherapy.

In November 2024, Dan’s doctors called him and told him to go to the ER to get a chest tube put in due to dead air and liquid around the lung. Dan was admitted to the ICU and spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. This was followed with being admitted to the ER/ICU two more times for chest tubes. He was discharged in December 2024, no longer on oxygen and breathing with 2 lungs while continuing the aggressive radiation, and both chemo and immunotherapy treatments.

As of March 2025, Dan has found out he has metastasis to his adrenal glands, nodes in his abdomen, and the brain.

His chest has improved from his prior scan in October 2024, however, the immunotherapy was targeting the only genetic marker that this cancer had. It is usually very effective treatment, but it did not work as well as they hoped and is proving to be a very aggressive cancer.

Dan will now be undergoing a new type of chemotherapy starting on April 3, 2025.

He will have two cycles of it each three weeks long, with a one-week break in-between. The PET Scan will be repeated after these two cycles to see how the chemotherapy worked.

Updated may 2025 scans showed the targeted treatment areas were successful but the cancer was growing in other areas that were not undergoing treatment. In late May it was discovered that Dan had numerous blood clots around his lungs and in his legs. Dan has currently been admitted to the hospital for about a week undergoing breathing treatments and attempting to resolve the blood clots

We are looking for some help with the medical expenses that will be coming in with all this unforeseen medical treatment. We appreciate anything that you can contribute.