Support the Fight for Dwight

Hello, my name is LouAnn McGraw. I am the wife of over 42 years to Charles Dwight McGraw,Jr. Dwight is my hero, fighting Pancreatic cancer since December 2021. We are hopeful you can help us get him the medical treatment that could save his life.

Let me share a little bit about the love of my life. He goes by Dwight and some call him QuickDraw or Quick. Dwight was born in WV, grew up mainly in Roanoke, VA, went to Cave Springs High School, moved to Va. Beach, VA and graduated from Cox High School. He retired after 41 years working at the coal piers for Norfolk Southern. He also worked part time for over 20 years with Live Nation, Event Staffing and Global Spectrum. He loved working concerts and other events throughout the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, especially at the Virginia Beach oceanfront and hockey games. He is an amazing and loving husband, father, brother, uncle and friend. Nothing gives him more joy than spending time with his family and friends.

The guy who could eat anything, suddenly had digestion issues. After numerous tests and scans, we received the devastating, life changing news that they saw something on his pancreas and it was likely cancer. As you may or may not know, there is no “cure” for pancreatic cancer, but they did believe he was in stage one. The tumor appeared to be localized and contained, so that gave us some hope. Only about 10% of pancreatic cancer cases are in stage one. They call it a silent killer, because in the majority of the cases, symptoms do not appear until it is too late.

The plan was made to begin chemo immediately to attempt to shrink the tumor and then perform the Wipple surgery to remove the tumor. After six very aggressive chemo treatments, there was little change. The date was set for the surgery. Unfortunately, while in surgery, they saw a couple of lesions on his liver, so a biopsy was taken, the surgery over and we were given the news. Just like that, he went from stage one to stage four. The news was crushing, but he did not give up.

After a long recovery from what we called the “surgery that wasn’t”, he resumed chemo.

Dwight must take an enzyme (ZenPep) with every meal to assist his digestive system process food. We were on a financial assistance program, but that has ceased. The cost is over $1,000/month. They will not refuse to fill the prescription due to finances, but bill the balance each month. ZenPep is a must! Dwight takes a number of other medications, but we are able to manage those financially.

Our hope was simple, pray the tumors do not grow or spread giving us more time to look for that miracle. Genetic testing was done. We have been to the Moffitt Cancer Center, Duke and the City of Hope (formerly known as the Cancer Centers of America) in search of that miracle. Sadly, no trials are available at this time.

His latest scan showed a very slight decrease of the tumors and no new growth! That was about the best we could hope for and are beyond thankful! His strength and positive attitude to fight this horrific disease may be rewarded!

There is a vaccine (pretrial) provided by the Jaime Leandro Foundation that has shown promise. The vaccine is developed based on markers found using DNA/RNA testing and designed to attack and destroy the cancer cells. It is “pretrial”, so it is not paid for by insurance. The cost will be at least $100,000. We have begun the process, but need your help!

So far, we have been doing alright, but this is beyond anything we have available.

We ask for your help and appreciate anything you can do to help make that miracle!

Thank you!