Hi everybody! First of all, thank you for taking the time out of your day to visit this GoFundMe page. My name is Danielle Woodward and I'm here to help support my uncle, Mark Woodward, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer earlier this year.

Many of you have made your way to this page because Mark has had some sort of impact on your life.  Maybe, like me, you are lucky enough to consider him family or a close friend. Those who know him that well know that Mark embodies what it means to be selfless.  My grandma will tell you about the times he dropped everything he was doing to take her to a doctor's appointment or do handiwork around her house. His daughter, Lindsey, will tell you how he worked tireless, long hours at a physically demanding job to buy her the car she wanted and help send her to college.

Maybe he's an old high school acquaintance that you've reconnected with on Facebook. Those who know him that way know of the positive outlook he always brought to what otherwise could be a negative space. You may know him for the encouraging comments he's left on your posts, or even his Facebook statuses that always seemed to be filled with love and gratitude for his friends and the community. 

Or maybe he's just a friendly familiar face you've grown used to seeing around Wyandotte — hard at work, enjoying a cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts or providing words of encouragement during those long, boring city government meetings. If there's one thing I know about my uncle, it's that he seems to have befriended nearly everyone in Wyandotte in some capacity.

But how we knew Mark didn't matter when he was diagnosed with cancer. That affected us all, and everyone — whether friend, family or acquaintance —
reached out to offer support without hesitation. I believe many of us, like me, felt sort of helpless. We all wanted to do whatever we could to help the man who had always helped us, but we didn't know how. Because Mark has always been so strong. He's never wanted to burden others by asking for help, though we all well know he would go (and has gone) out of his way to help anybody at the drop of a hat.

So for those like myself who don't really know how to help, I would be so appreciative if you would consider donating to this GoFundMe account. As many of you already know, Mark is undergoing immunotherapy to treat his cancer after several rounds of intense chemotherapy did not work. As you can imagine, this treatment is incredibly expensive. Our family has set a goal of $12,000 to fund the portion of Mark's mounting medical bills that insurance will not cover. I know this goal is high, but I also know that the outpour of love and support I have seen for my uncle since his diagnosis has been overwhelming and nothing short of incredible. Any donation, no matter how big or small, would be such a huge help in lifting any burden we can off Mark during this trying time.

If you have made it to the end of this post, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read it. This is so important to me because, for as much of my life as I can remember, I have watched my uncle work so relentlessly and selflessly to make sure his loved ones were happy and taken care of. Anyone else in his family will say the same and then some. We all have fond memories of was Mark brightened our lives, and I would really love to pay that back to him as a community by brightening up his in any way we can. Thanks for reading!