My name is Lu Lawson and I am Tanja's mom. I started this fundraiser to help Tanja and her husband Herbie with financial support. In 2019 Herbie was diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma. He had his left kidney removed and they weren't able to remove all of the cancer. His scans after surgery showed cancer cells in the margins. They found a Doctor at U of M Rogel Cancer Center in Ann Arbor that has over forty years of experience treating kidney cancer and decided to travel out of town for preventative care which consisted of scans every three months at U of M. For the first few years the cancer didn't do anything. Then in 2024 the scans showed that his lung nodules had grown and so they had a petscan done. The results were not what they wanted to hear. His kidney cancer, even though it was very small and they had caught it early, had spread to his lungs, adrenal glands, lymph nodes and bones. They have been making trips downstate every three weeks for treatment which has been an added expense that they have done their best to manage. In December they went down for radiation and this required them to stay for seven days. During this time they had hotel, food and gas expenses that they hadn't planned on and because all of their PTO was used up neither of them got paid for this time from work. After the radiation Herbie had a really hard time recovering from the side effects. He had mouth sores and couldn't eat or sleep. He was miserable. He also needed to start a new cancer drug and he has had challenging side effects from that. He hasn't been able to work since the middle of December and has been approved for short term disability but hasn't received any benefits yet from that. They have many more trips to Ann Arbor ahead of them and not knowing when Herbie may return to work, if ever, they could really use some help to get them back on their feet. On behalf of Herbie and Tanja, thank you for any help you are able to provide and please share this with friends and family and keep them in your prayers.