Please help Kim Doss and her family as her husband Lenny battles Stage IV prostate cancer.

Kim has been covering women’s sports at the University of Arizona and elsewhere for the past 10 years. Nine of those have been with azdesertswarm.com.

The wife, mother, and grandmother has been able to devote so much time to telling the stories of female athletes because of the unfailing support of her husband of 34 years, Lane ‘Lenny’ Cortés.

Lenny has been the one taking care of the couple’s disabled 25-year-old son while Kim spends hours covering women’s basketball, softball, gymnastics, volleyball, and soccer. Kim has been able to travel to conference tournaments as far away as Kansas City and road games in nearby cities and states because Lenny is home taking care of their son. He was also the one who supported the family for most of their 3.5 decades together while Kim went to school and raised their two children.

Lenny began to suffer pain a little over a year ago, but the family had difficulty getting him the proper medical care. He was finally diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer that had metastasized into his bones and lymphatic system in November, the day after he turned 57.

Genetic testing revealed that his cancer is especially aggressive because of a BRCA2 genetic mutation. The mutation is linked to breast cancer in women. In men, it’s linked to early onset prostate cancer that is particularly aggressive and more resistant to treatment.

Lenny is undergoing a variety of treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation, and will continue to be under medical care for this cancer for the rest of his life. Because he is Stage IV, the hope is for remission not cure.

The medical bills continue to mount. Even after meeting his insurance deductible, there is a high co-insurance for many of his treatments. One round of radiation treatments alone had co-insurance costs of just over $3,000, and he is still in need of another round that will cost another $3,000+. That is in addition to the stack of medical bills that piled up during the process of getting him diagnosed. On top of that, his insurance premiums went from $107 per month to $397 per month after the changes to the ACA this year.

Lenny spent most of his life as a mechanic. He’s obviously not able to do that work anymore. Kim is the only one in the household who is able to work, and she simply doesn’t make enough to meet all of the financial demands. The family has applied for disability for Lenny, but the process is slow and drawn out.

If you are able to donate, any amount helps. If not, please forward.