Bradley Fantuzzi's Cancer Support Fund

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Okay so. My Name is Bradley Fantuzzi. I am a 35 year old male from Richmond Virginia. I love life, I love my family and friends, I love skateboarding, mopeds, documentaries, mountains and beaches. I however recently thanks to the Doctors at Bon Secours and Virginia Urology have come to release I’m not as healthy of a person as I thought I was. So here I am asking for financial and emotional support from whoever is willing and able to help…

Early March 2023 I was experience very strange G.I. issues and sought answers from the doctor. After an original physical and a standard blood test from my PCP showed nothing unusual, my doctors decided to give me a MRI of my lower abdomen. This is when things started to get strange. They noticed an unusually large Mass in my right testicle which led to further blood test and an Ultra-Sound of said Testicle. At the time I was still optomistic that the mass was simply a Benign Tumor (which I was original told) that would have to be eventually removed. So I waited for the blood work and test results and Ultrasound from the Urologist…

On Wednesday March 29th, the results came back from the Urologist. I was diagnosed with CANCER…

The Mass in which I was dealing with was indeed Testicular Cancer.

The blood work showed that the Cancer Markers were extremely elevated. I had known that something was strange but I really didn’t take it as seriously as I probably should have. The truth is that no one really wants to believe they have a Tumor, especially a Cancerous Tumor. The doctors were very clear however that I needed Surgery, and I needed to have it ASAP.

2 Days later on March 30th at 6:30am at Virginia Urology I was in scrubs in a surgery bed playing Pokémon Go to distract myself from what was going to the the start of the hardest part of my life so far. A fight mentally, physically, and medically against the demon they call Cancer. So It began…

I was prepped by the nurses and put under with anesthesia and had my Orchiectomy done. The doctors removed the Tumor and my right Testicle. Adios… Recovery had begun.

I woke up from the procedure in pretty good spirits, Very Sore/ Very slow moving/ Definitely an interesting version of Pain.

So here I am now, 2 week later. Im currently in Raleigh, NC finishing up my initial recovery in the remarkably loving company of my Parents (Doug and Mary), and my sister and Brother In-Law (Alessandra and Glen) and the newest addition to our family, my 6 month old Neice Saoirsa. I am extremely lucky to have such an amazing family supporting me. I know this isn’t easy for them either. In fact it’s terrifying.

So the next steps are kind of up in the air. I’m currently waiting for the test results from the surgery to come back from the Lab. These results should tell me the type of Cancer they removed, how fast this type of cancer spreads, if it spreads has spread, and what to expect the treatment plan from here on out to look like. I should receive these results sometime this week or early next week. Im scheduled for full body CT scan which will give more details about what if any cancerous stuff is left inside of me. I am hoping that the vast majority has been removed, however it is possible there may be future surgeries, procedures, etc. I am hoping with everything I can hope with that; this is NOT the case. After that its onto see an Oncologist to talk about the final push… Chemo. I don’t know how much Chemo I will need yet but I do know that I’ll need it. Possibly Radiation Therapy too but I’m not sure whether that is in the cards or not yet. Im rolling with the punches as I see them.

Anyways. I am extremely grateful to anyone and everyone that has reached out to me so far. I feel loved and that has made things massively better/ easier. I haven’t really made this whole Cancer thing 100% public yet, but here I am now... I’m sorry if I maybe shared TMI but I think it’s kind of important for people to understand the whole process and ordeal in order to understand where I’m at and how I’m feeling.

If you made it this far thank you for taking the time to read and peer into my current situation.

Like I said at the start. I am uncomfortable asking for help ( I try my best to get through things on my own ) however this ordeal is bigger than I could have imagined and I’m going to need all the help I can get for the upcoming months/year. If you have the ability to or feel inclined to help support my Cancer Recovery Fund please feel free to do so. However anything… even just reaching out and saying “hey!” “Fuck Cancer” “You got this” “Your killing it!” Etc really makes things a millions of times easier as well. And I appreciate everything more than you could ever imagine.

I will continue to update this with the current events regarding treatment/ doctors/ scans/ tests. I feel like this if anything helps not only me document this whole journey but also helps a lot of you, my friends and family, understand what’s going on. In real time. Without anyone having to feel awkward asking (although you don’t have to feel awkward! I’m very willing to answer any questions!).

Thank you Thank You Thank you. I love all of you. Here I go_________________________<3

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