We are raising money to help my husbands father, Bruce Thayer. He has one son, Brad, a daughter, Kelsy, and two stepsons, Brian and Brandon. He has been married to his wife Linda for 16 years. Together they have eight grandkids and one more on the way!
Bruce has worked at the Bremerton Shipyard for over 22 years. He has worked in multiple departments and is known to everyone around the shipyard as the one and only "Bubba". Bruce was looking forward to working at the shipyard for another 7 years but unfortunately was forced into retirement due to his recent diagnosis.
Bruce went into St. Clare hospital in Lakewood, WA on September 24th to get looked at for swelling in his legs and feet. We later found out that Bruce had developed blood clots in his legs. We had to ask, what caused the blood clots? Unsure at the time the doctors decided to run more tests. Bruce went in for a CT scan to take a further look. The doctors came back saying they've seen something abnormal with his scan but couldn't give a diagnosis since there were no radiologists available at the hospital over the weekend to officially read the scans we had to wait until Monday to get final word on what was going on. They wanted us to not think about and stay away from the scary "C" word. So, we waited for Monday to arrive.
Monday arrived.
We received information from the CT scan. What was the scary "C" word quickly turned into a reality for us. Bruce was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and that wasn't even the worst of it. We learned that it had spread to his stomach and liver as well. They classified Bruce as a Stage 4. It is not curable and it is not operable. He can only receive chemo therapy treatment to help shrink the cancer to live as long as possible.
Bruce will begin treatment in the next couple of weeks at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle.
We are collecting money for Bruce's treatment, medical bills from his hospital stay, pharmacy copays and other house bills due to Bruce needing to retire early because of his condition. Bruce has been taking a blood thinner to help the blood clots called Lovenox, which some of you may is very costly but it is the best medication for Bruce to take during this process. Bruce was only given 6 months to live without treatment and 20 months with treatment. Bruce has always been the guy to want to live as long as possible- he aimed to live 120 years. With his next grandchild due April 3rd (the day before his birthday) we want to do everything possible to give him the best available treatment for Bruce to meet his new grandchild and to get to as close to 120 years as possible.
Bruce has always been a kind hearted man who would give the shirt off his back to help those in need. We want to give back as much to him as much as he has given to all of us.  
We greatly appreciate all donations and highly encourage everyone to share this page with others who know Bruce or are willing to donate. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts in advanced. We will continue to give updates through this page.