Help Mark Beat Cancer!

Mark lives in Macon, Ga. with his wife, Kara and their 4y/o daughter, Aliya. He has served as the youth pastor at North Macon Presbyterian Church for the past 8.5 years.

This past Fall Mark noticed a small lump forming on his upper left arm – between his elbow and tricep. Initially, his PCP diagnosed it as lipoma (fatty cell deposit) and assumed it would be gone within a month. When it wasn’t gone by late January, she ordered an ultrasound and again he was told it was a lipoma. On April 10th, Mark had surgery to remove the lump, which turned out to be sarcoma – cancer of the soft tissue.

Because of the rare and deadly nature of this particular sarcoma, Mark's sister-in-law (a nurse and cancer survivor) sent the pathology report to The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Out of 1.7 million new cancer cases each year in the U.S., sarcomas make up only 14,000 of those cases. Beacuse of the rare nature of this cancer, it is imperative to have sarcomas treated by specialized doctors in a sarcoma center.

Thankfully, the Mayo Clinic has agreed to take on his case. He has already traveled to be seen twice and is on a solid plan to terminate the cancer from his body. Mark qualified for a 3 week clinical trial of radiation. He and his family will live in Rochester, MN, and he will begin the three weeks of radiation starting June 7th. Following the radiation, he will return home to Macon for a month and then will travel back to the Mayo Clinic at the beginning of August for surgery. Because of the aggressive nature of sarcomas, the surgeon will be aggressive with what he removes from Mark's arm. The surgery will also include a skin graft and plastic surgery. He’s been told to expect to stay in the hospital 5-7 nights.

The back and forth travel to Rochester that has already occurred, the travel that is upcomming, along with food, scans, housing, appointments, surgery, follow-ups, and out of network insurance coverage will require a tremendous amount of financial strain. Please join with us in praying for Mark's healing! Any financial gift you can give is deeply appreciated (no amount is too small!) and will allow Mark to focus on his game plan. Thank you for being on Mark's cancer fighting team!