My dad has worked hard all his life to support our family. As a construction worker, he has done back breaking work faithfully for over 30 years. In 2010, a flood took away the home he'd spent his whole life buying and being unable to afford the sky high rents everywhere else, my aunt offered my parents a home at a discounted rental rate they could afford. Sadly, she passed away last year, and my cousin who inherited immediately doubled the rent. It was still a bit below market, and my dad picked up extra work, often seven days a week, to be able to make the payments.

In April, my father experienced pain in his stomach so severe that he asked my mom to take him to the emergency room. An abdominal CT showed a large mass in his abdomen. He was hospitalized, had a colonoscopy as well as biopsy which confirmed his colon was riddled with cancer. He had to have his colon removed and will wear an ileostomy bag for the rest of his life. When removing his colon, the doctors also did a biopsy of surrounding lymph nodes which came back cancerous so he'll also have to undergo at least six months of chemotherapy. The surgery to remove his colon took a major toll on his body and he ended up spending over 6 weeks in the hospital before being released with home health care visits multiple times a week.

My mother is disabled and unable to work so that 6 weeks plus the bills for medical care and medications has put a major strain on their finances. One of my dad's medications is $900 a month, but if he doesn't have it, he could have a stroke or a heart attack and die. This month, for the first time in 14 years, they missed a rent payment. My cousin immediately threatened them with eviction. If that happens, there's nowhere for them to go. They are desperately trying to get social security benefits so that they'll have at least something to give my cousin, but the waiting time for that is very long. They are down to the last $498 in their bank account and aren't sure how they'll even manage to buy all of my dad's medicine next month. I live paycheck to paycheck myself so I unfortunately don't have anything to give them. I'm so sick with worry over their situation and at a loss of what to do. I hate seeing my dad going through all of this pain and being threatened with eviction on top of that. I've never made a go fund me before, never asked anyone for money, but I'm absolutely desperate to help them. Please, please, please, if you've read this story, anything you can give will help.