Support the Walkers

MY STORY - from Ray

I don't know if you have seen the movie Final Destination. In it, the protagonists unknowingly 'cheat' death and death spends the rest of the movie correcting its mistake. Each character is eventually sent to their final destination through very aggressive means. I feel like I am living this movie.

In April 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, I became sick and was unable to hold down any food for 8 days. Doctors asked me to come in and have blood drawn to see if they could figure out what was wrong. 3 hours later I was on the operating table with a stage 1 rare cancer called leiomyosarcoma in my small intestine.

If it wasn't for the blockage, I wouldn't have found out about the cancer. Unfortunately for me, while in that surgery they discovered a second wildly aggressive stage 4 colorectal cancer that had already spread to my liver. The oncologist set my expectations for my battle. He said I had less than a 40% chance to live five more years.

But I said f*** that! That led to the hardest 10 months of my life. Between all the surgeries (4) and the double chemo for 8 months, I was down for the count. But I was declared cancer-free by November of 2020.

I was of course ecstatic with that outcome. I will always be grateful to my company at the time for their support. I was able to go on long-term disabilty and still have income allowing me to concentrate only on getting better and beating this.

I had somehow cheated death and looked forward to a long happy life. But something wouldn't allow that to happen. This past March 2023, we discovered cancer markers in my bloodwork that showed some small cancer activity might be occurring again.

SIDE NOTE: The day after I learned the cancer was back, I was laid off from my current job. I don't think one thing led to the other, but it was horrible timing. Now I was going to have to fight my battle all while looking for a new job as we couldn't go without insurance and a salary for too long.

Back to the cancer. So we scheduled a Petscan to identify where the cancer might be in my body. I was told the markers are small so we might not even see the cancer on the scan.

Then came the results. The ENTIRE left lobe of my liver is riddled with cancer again. The petscan lit up like a Christmas tree with cancer. I was not expecting that, and clearly neither was my oncologist. I could clearly see the concern and surprise with these results. I was devastated. No job, no insurance, and the battle of a lifetime ahead of me.

Well, yesterday I went to my oncologist to get our plan of attack for this round. He basically told me that this is end-stage. We will not be fighting to get rid of the cancer, we will be simply fighting to extend my life. The cancer is so aggressive and has overtaken so much of the liver that it likely can't be removed. The numbers show that there is only a 50% chance that I make it through this year.

So now I begin near constant chemo for the next 3-6 months. We will surely run though all of our savings during this battle. And all I can think about is how to earn money to support my family during this time.

I am very uncomfortable asking for help ( I try my best to get through things on my own ) however this ordeal is getting bigger than I could have ever imagined and I'm going to need all the help I can get. If you have the ability to or feel inclined to help support my Cancer Recovery Fund, please feel free to do so. However anything... even just reaching out and saying "F*** Cancer" or "You got this" really makes things a million times easier as well. I appreciate everything more than you could ever imagine.

Thank you

Ray Walker