Hello everyone my name is Jonathan Bourassa. I am the youngest son of four children and caregiver to the man I call dad and father. He just so happens to be the man that I have and will continue to look up to the rest of my life. My father has been the inspiration to all of us on how we should live our lives on a daily basis. He has taught us that no matter the obstacle that stands in our way, we do whatever it takes to overcome it and provide for our family. Whether that meant that we would have to work multiple jobs to even doing side jobs around the neighborhood, he taught us the tools necessary to do whatever it takes to succeed in life. But our lives took a drastic change when we found out that our dad, the man we all look up to, was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer at the age of 54.

As a family, we have been battling this cancer for going on the past two years now, of which we were never promised. For those who know anything about battling cancer; you know that it’s a hard and at times unforgiving battle for everyone involved. My father started his treatment at Mayo client where he had his left kidney removed. From there we found out that the cancer had spread to his liver, lungs, and lymph nodes. If that wasn’t enough, we were informed that his condition is a very aggressive and terminal cancer for which there is NO cure for. My father was given a life expectancy of 3 to 6 months, treated or untreated. Then began the long road of treatment; first being a “medical trail” treatment, that offered NO real chance of success in gaining control of his aggressive cancer. So with that information we began our search to find somewhere that would provide us the treatment necessary to hopefully win this fight.

That was when we transferred treatment to MD Anderson Cancer Center. Once there we were told that they might be able to extend my dad’s life from 3 to 6 months to maybe a year with the treatment that they had available. The new time frame again wasn’t promised but offered a little more hope for the thing we had come to cherish most, time. During the treatment process he experience the typical symptoms such as weight loss, food not tasting right, no appetite, and even losing his hair just like any normal patient would. However, there is nothing normal about my dad and his treatment process at all. When the time called for them to give us the results of his first full treatment cycle we were informed that not only did the treatment not have any success against the cancer but the cancer had grown. So we were left to make a decision, either continue with the same treatment or change treatment completely. After long thought and decision making, my dad decided that he would take all the information that we have gather now from Mayo Client and MD Anderson and search for an opinion that works for him.

For our last opinion, we came to one of the biggest name in the cancer community that everyone knows; Cancer Treatment Center of America, which we have been at for the last year and a half now. Here we found out a whole different meaning of what a treatment center is all about. I couldn’t even begin to describe the feeling we got the second when we walked in the door to this place. From the moment, we spoke with the team of Doctors we finally got a sense of hope that we can beat this cancer. After speaking with the team we find out that the condition my dad is in for his stage is remarkable to them and that he was more than capable to handle the treatment that Dr. Quan, a board-certified medical oncologist, Chief of Medical Oncology and Director of Immunotherapy at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Western Regional Medical Center, had available for treatment. The treatment, which he specialized in, is called Interleukin-2 or IL-2, which is a powerful treatment option for kidney cancer, especially with kidney cancer that has metastasized like my dad’s cancer has. It also has some of the toughest symptoms I’ve ever seen someone go through including; flu like symptoms, extreme cold chills, extreme body shakes, body aches, low blood pressure, nausea, and diarrhea. Needless to say, those symptoms are no joke for anyone to endure but through it all my dad was still able to walk into CTCA and walk out with an amazing outlook and sense of hope, even after a 12 hour day of treatment at times. So as days went on the months got harder and more intense, it never deterred him from coming in for a treatment. That went on for a good year or so but as the saying goes all good things must come to an end and that’s exactly what happened when the cancer adapted and became immune to the treatment. Yet again we sit here having to make another decision of weighing the different treatment options and continue the fight or stop treatment all together. I said it once I’ll say it again there is nothing normal about my dad and his treatment process. He has overcome everything else in his life so he sure isn’t going to allow this to be anything different. He choose to continue to fight against this cancer and will not let the word defeat be an option. For the next several months we started bouncing from treatment to treatment even so far as having to get radiation done on a couple of spots in his brain. After lifting it all up to God asking and praying for Him to intervene, we finally got some good news in return and things have started to slow down the growth of the cancer. The thing is no one said that the fight against cancer was going to be easy and this fight is still far from over but as he as stated he’s not ready to die any time soon so the fight will continue until we win this fight against cancer.

I tell you all these things about him and his treatment process so that you may have an idea of what he has gone through these last two years and will continue to go through until we finally are able to say we have won this fight against cancer. See one of the main things that has played a major part in my dad’s success is the fact that ever sense we started at CTCA he’s had a positive outlook on life and winning this fight. He isn’t going to allow cancer to slow his life down by any means necessary. He continues to still work a full time job, which has been a real blessing that he hasn’t been let go due to any unreasonable circumstances. He even continues to play a round of golf from time to time, it may not be 18 holes like it used to be but the mere fact that he is still able to get up and play is a huge blessing in itself. If you noticed I have been using the word blessing a lot and that is because throughout this whole process we as a family have been blessed with so much. Having people we know coming together to help fly my sister to and from Alaska, and my brother to and from Texas, when he lived there, but he has now moved back home with the help of the people we know pitching in to help move him back here. I tell you all these things because anyone that knows anything about medical bills or things of that nature, then they know that when you go from hospital to hospital the bills just pile up. There is only so much that a full time job can pay for when you have a house payment, house bills, medical bills, and a daughter that lives now in Alaska who also just had baby. So now not only does he rarely get to see his only daughter but his newly born grandson that he has only meant but once. So with all these medical bills piling up and the lack of funds to really being able to enjoy his life, as we know it, like he should or being able to see his grandson more often he is starting to get overwhelmed with all these bills. Especially since his condition is so up and down where one day he is doing good and the next day he has to walk with a walker and have assistance doing the simple things like getting up from his recliner, to even having hand rails mounted in the bathroom for assistance into the shower and off the toilet. All these medical supplies can start adding up so they don’t help with the bills that already exist. That is why I’m asking the readers of this to help a family in need and donate what you can. We aren’t asking that you give much but we are asking for help with whatever you can give, even if it as low as a dollar. We are just asking that you help us reach our goal to raise enough money to help catch up on medical bills and provide a better life style for my dad. So that he doesn’t have to worry about all the medical expenses on top of the continued stress of weekly treatments that are taking away from him being able to experience the finer things in life. I just want to say thank you to everyone that ends up reading this and donating and how much we as a family appreciate each and every one of you more than words can ever describe.