Help Frank Monahan Fight Cancer!

Hello family and friends. 

As all of you know, my father, Frank Monahan, has been suffering with severe pain for 3+ years now.  After many, many doctors’ visits, and just as many tests and unanswered questions, he was finally referred to the specialists at Johns Hopkins and was diagnosed with cancer of several facial nerves. The official name is Perineural Spread of Squamous Cell Carcinoma and it is very dangerous.

The cancer is now progressing rapidly and is affecting his facial muscles (the left side of his face is paralyzed), his eye (his vision in his left eye is failing), and he is having increased pain and migraines.

Luckily, now that we have the diagnosis we have a treatment plan! We have nicknamed his tumor “Timmy the Tumor” and our new family slogan is “Timmy’s Goin’ Down”!  Frank is very positive and he is ready and willing to fight this cancer ("Timmy") with everything he’s got.

Treatment:
He has been prescribed an aggressive treatment plan of radiation therapy 2x a day (morning and afternoon) Monday-Friday, and also chemotherapy 1x per week.  All of these treatments will be over a 5-week period.  He will also have physical therapy to keep his facial muscles limber during treatment. 

He will be residing up in Maryland at a good friends house and will be treated at Johns Hopkins. 

Everyone has been so supportive in time, housing offers, well wishes and prayers and they are all greatly and graciously accepted.  Thank you everyone!

Why We Need Your Help: 
However, there are also financial concerns to all this treatment, including the pre-treatment and post-treatment care. 

Dad and Karen don’t talk about this stuff out loud, but they have serious concerns about their ability to meet all the costs.

-Insurance doesn’t cover everything (as many of you know).  They know they will have at least $7,000 out-of-pocket off the top due to extensive pre-treatment preparing his body and head for the radiation and chemo onslaught, and then are even more uncovered expenses to come…

-There are transportation costs (gas to and from MD, daily parking fees, etc.)

-Special dietary costs during treatment.

-Lost income on both Frank and Karen’s parts while he is being treated/recovering.

I have created this GoFundMe campaign in the hopes of helping my parents be able to go into this fight with one less thing to have to stress about.

I know you all know this, but both my Dad and Karen are very generous in helping many people and organizations that help others with no thought that they might need some help too.

THANK YOU:
Any and all donations are so helpful and we are so grateful!  Thank you in advance for all you do! 

Helping to spread the word about this campaign is also helpful and most appreciated!

Alexis Monahan