#HelpUsFightforDragon

On June 13th, my husband, JC (who many of you know as Dragon), went to the emergency room for what we thought was a pulled muscle after three weeks of pain in his left side.

The ER team initially believed it was likely musculoskeletal and was preparing to send him home.

But JC had a feeling something wasn't right.

He asked for a CT scan, anyway.

At 3 a.m., my phone buzzed.

"Be strong, my Chickie," he wrote. "We're gonna get through this."

Then came the words no family is ever prepared to hear:

"They're pretty sure it's renal cell cancer."

I remember staring at my phone, trying to process what I was reading.

I asked him if it was definitely cancer.

"The doctor said he's pretty sure, yes."

Even while receiving the worst news of his life, JC was focused on comforting me.

"Sorry my love. But there's hope. It doesn't seem to be spreading to my lungs, and if it's not in the bones they take out the kidney and we're cool."

Moments later, his thoughts turned to our daughter.

"Please don't get Lexi worried before her Jiu-Jitsu competition."

I promised him I wouldn't.

"She needs to focus," he replied. "I told her I'm fine."

That is who JC is.

Anyone who knows him won't be surprised. JC has spent his life showing up for the people he loves.

When I lost my sister to suicide, he carried me through unimaginable grief. When my father was dying, he helped me care for him. When we spent years navigating the challenges of adopting Lexi (my sister’s daughter) from South Africa, he never wavered. Long before the adoption was finalized, he was already her dad in every way that mattered.

I never thought I would meet someone who would love not just me, but also Lexi.

When COVID brought the world to a standstill, our adoption was suddenly put on hold. I was stuck in South Africa, separated from the life we'd built in America, terrified that Lexi would lose hope after waiting so long.

Without hesitation, JC packed up his entire life in America and moved to South Africa to be with us.

He didn't know how long we'd be there. He simply knew that Lexi deserved to know she wasn't alone and that we would wait for her together, as a family.

That's who my husband is. He has always shown up for the people he loves—fully, selflessly, and without hesitation.

Now, after his Stage IV kidney cancer diagnosis, I'm asking others to do for him what he has spent his life doing for everyone else: show up.

The CT scan revealed a 13.5 cm mass on his left kidney with significant lymph node involvement. The good news is that his lungs and other organs are clear, and his bone scan showed no evidence of cancer in his bones.

His doctors are hopeful.

The plan is to begin immunotherapy before undergoing major surgery to remove his kidney and affected lymph nodes.

For that hope, we are incredibly grateful.

After my sister died, I decided to become a therapist as part of my healing journey. JC made that possible. He supported our family while I was in grad school, and never once made me feel guilty for going back to school.

When Lexi's adoption was finalized and we finally returned to the United States, we started over.

I built a private practice. JC poured himself into his podcast. Slowly, after years of sacrifice, things began falling into place. For the first time in a long time, it felt like we were finally finding our footing and building a life together as a family.

For years, JC poured every extra dollar into giving us the best life and building our businesses. The man wore underwear long past its retirement date.

JC keeps joking, "The month I finally decided we were financially stable enough for me to buy a fresh drawer full of underwear without checking the bank account first was the same month I got diagnosed with kidney cancer."

If you know JC, you know that one of his greatest gifts is his sense of humor. That's just JC. He somehow manages to make people laugh even when he's the one carrying the burden.

Based on our current treatment plan, we expect our out-of-pocket medical expenses to far exceed $200,000. Between immunotherapy, surgery, imaging, biopsies, hospital stays, and ongoing cancer care, the financial burden is overwhelming.

While we are grateful to have a critical illness policy that will help offset some costs, it will not come close to covering everything.

Like many self-employed families, we found ourselves caught in the gap between building a business and being able to afford comprehensive health insurance for the two of us. We never imagined we would be facing a life-threatening cancer diagnosis before we got there.

Asking for help is not easy for us. We have always been the people who tried to figure things out on our own. But right now our focus needs to be on one thing: giving JC every possible chance to beat this cancer and get back to the life he loves.

If you've listened to the "Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick" podcast, shared a conversation with JC, laughed with him, learned from him, or been touched by his kindness, we're asking for your support.

Every donation will go directly toward JC's medical care and help our family focus on what matters most: getting him healthy.

And if you can't donate, sharing this fundraiser means more than you know.

A friend recently reminded me of something beautiful: if someone had offered me a life without grief, loss, uncertainty, or pain, I might have been tempted to take it.

But I would have missed JC.

I would have missed watching him become Lexi's dad.

I would have missed the life we've built together, the laughter, the adventures, the ordinary moments that became extraordinary because we shared them.

The truth is, I would choose him all over again.

Every time.

Even knowing how hard this moment is.

Because loving someone this deeply is always worth the risk.

We know the road ahead won't be easy.

There will be treatments.

There will be surgeries.

There will be difficult days.

But there will also be hope.

There will be laughter.

There will be family dinners.

There will be podcast episodes.

There will be future memories with Lexi and JC's two boys, Jeremy & Jaxson.

Because there is still so much life left to live, so many memories left to make, and a future for JC and me that is absolutely worth fighting for ❤️

Thank you for standing beside us.

Thank you for helping us fight for JC's life.