Cost of Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

As the country's fourth leading cause of cancer-related death, pancreatic cancer is known to be one of the most aggressive forms of cancer with the poorest prognosis. Three short years after losing his own mother to pancreatic cancer, my father has found himself in his own battle against the same disease at the young age of 59. The costs of treatment have been exorbitant and stressful for the family between imaging studies, chemotherapy, doctor's visits, and medications. The battle isn't close to being over yet now that radiation therapy will be the next treatment option, as chemotherapy has failed to shrink the tumor for surgery.

As the breadwinner of his home, my father has found himself not only battling a disease, but the negative impacts on his mental health from loss of income, loss of independence, effects from chemotherapy, and the continuous negative news from doctors.

Donations for this GoFundMe will go directly to cost of treatment, medications, and additional therapy such as psychotherapy to help relieve the financial burdens and relieve stress. This will help my father focus on healing so that he can be there for his wife, his daughter (myself), and his grandson (my son).

My father was born to a single teen mother and experienced adversity throughout his childhood and adolescence. To escape poverty, drugs, and dangers of the inner city, he joined the military and served for 12 years total between the marines and the army. Shortly after I was born, my mother abandoned us and he was faced with the struggles of single parenthood. Being the early to mid 90's, there was not much support or awareness for single fathers as there was for single mothers and he found himself working upwards of 80 hours just to support us. He later continued to fight against the odds and started college at age 40 and obtained his master's degree at the age of 46. Today, he enjoys reading books, doing drone photography, learning about historical events, spending time with his wife and cats, and doing fun activities with his only grandchild.