Fair Haven Fundraiser

Last September, I was diagnosed with Stage 3C testicular cancer. After 4 cycles of chemotherapy, 2 surgeries, and countless hospital visits, I am proud to say that I am nearly 4 months into remission!

During my cancer treatment, I was fortunate enough to receive care from Dr. Einhorn at Indiana University Health, who is considered the best testicular cancer oncologist in the world (literally). If it weren’t for his breakthrough of cisplatin chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer in the 1970s, I wouldn’t be around today.

While receiving care from Dr. Einhorn and his incredible medical staff in Indianapolis, I was reminded how lucky I am to have such a great support system comprising of my family, girlfriend, friends, and company. I was also fortunate enough to stay at a non-profit named Fair Haven near IU Health hospital.

Fair Haven offers free housing, a fully stocked kitchen, and emotional support for families and patients receiving care for critical illnesses at the nearby IU Health hospital. In other words, Fair Haven offers patients one less thing to worry about when navigating through treatment for critical illnesses. Hearing previous and ongoing success stories of other cancer patients from all over the world that stayed at Fair Haven kept me in a positive mindset during treatment and gave me a new sense of community. The employees and volunteers at Fair Haven are truly incredible human beings, and I still keep in touch with some of them to this day.

Even in his final days of battling melanoma, my grandfather always said, “something good comes out of something bad”. In the spirit of this mindset, I am asking friends, family members, and colleagues to consider donating to Fair Haven. Every dollar counts, and I will be happily matching any donations up to $1,000.

And one last thing! For any guys out there reading this post – make sure to check yourself once a month. This is something that I was never taught to do, even though testicular cancer is the most common type of cancer seen in men aged 18-35. Testicular cancer has one of the most favorable prognoses of all cancer types, with a 5-year survival rate of 95+%. But just like any other cancer, testicular cancer is best caught early, and often (as was with me) it is asymptomatic until it has already spread. So, do yourself a favor - check those nuts!

Fair Haven's website: https://fairhavenfoundation.org/