Hello all, my name is John Purpura and I’m starting this fundraiser for my father, Salvatore Purpura. On December 28th, 2024, my father had a seizure in front of myself and my mother in the early afternoon. This seizure was caused by a mass on the right side of his brain, which we later found out to be Stage four Glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM for short. This is a very aggressive form of brain cancer, but we were lucky to have caught it early. On New Year’s Day, the tumor was fully removed from his brain, and that was the start of his recovery process.

Since then, my father has gone through a full round of radiation and four rounds of chemotherapy. He also has been undergoing another form of treatment called Optune. This treatment involves four pads being placed on his head, which constantly send electric pulses to the area where the tumor was. But on May 30th, we took him back to the hospital because he was starting to have constant headaches, had trouble walking and staying upright, and has been having gaps in his memory. We later found out that his brain was swelling a significant amount, pushing against his skull, and after an MRI was done, it showed that the entire right side of his brain was significantly swollen. 

My father immigrated to the United States from Sicily in 1976. He has done everything right; he learned English, went to school, and graduated from college. Since then, he has raised a family of four and has worked with the NYPD as part of their IT bureau for the last 31 years. He has dedicated his entire professional adult life to his job. But because of his condition, he has not been able to go into the office and he’s been working from home. But because he’s been working from home, he has not been able to work overtime like he used to do before he was diagnosed, and because of that, we have lost a good chunk of the income he used to bring in. Without that extra income, money has been really tight and paying bills for the family and his medical bills has been getting increasingly difficult. Because of his condition he has been advised by friends, families, and his doctors that the best decision for him would be to medically retire.

Whatever you can donate would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for reading my father’s story, and God bless.