HELP ANDREWS FIGHT AGAINST BRAIN CANCER

Hi, my name is Libby, Andrew's sister. In August 2019, Andrew was on his lunch break for work and had a seizure for which he was rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival, they thought the seizure might have been caused by stress but did an MRI just to be safe. During the MRI they found a large tumor that they estimated had been growing over 15 years and had finally gotten large enough that his brain could not handle it. Shortly after the discovery, Andrew had his first resection surgery, which was a success. The surgeons felt confident they were able to remove all the tumors. Pathology showed his tumor was defined as a grade 2 astrocytoma- this type of brain cancer can be very aggressive but the genetic makers for his were all positive that it would be treatable. The area of the brain where Andrews's tumor was growing controls motor function on the left side of his body, we were grateful surgery did not impact this for him at this time. Aside from the occasional seizures which have been controlled by medicine so far, Andrew was able to return to his normal life and the only job he knew and loved. He even bought his first house! We counted our blessings and moved forward with life and doctor's orders to have follow-up MRIs every three months.

In November of 2022, during a seemingly routine MRI, they found the tumor had returned. This time it had grown the size of a golf ball in less than three months, indicating cancer had returned and was considerably more aggressive. Andrew has since had another resection surgery and is on the mend but unfortunately was not as lucky this time. He has been having residual effects on motor function and depth perception. This not only affects his day-to-day life, making even the simplest task seem challenging, but it may also end up changing his ability to do his job as a mechanic. His tumor has been sent to the mayo clinic for advanced pathology and we have yet to receive the results so we are unsure how server cancer has become. In the meantime, we have met with a radiation oncologist and have appointments scheduled with a medical oncologist, neurologist, neurology ophthalmologist, and the list go on.... to start to form a treatment plan. Even with all the treatment, Andrew will have to go through the type of cancer he has is insidious. There is a great chance it will return, potentially somewhere inoperable and considerably more aggressive. We are trying to take it one day at a time and I am doing everything to keep Andrews's life as normal as possible.

Andrew is my younger brother and also my best friend. We had an incredibly hard childhood, losing our Father at a young age, watching our mother go from a stay-at-home mom to business women working day and night to support us, to losing the support from our mother, but he was always there when I needed him. He has worked hard for his career, becoming one of the best mechanics you can find and doing everything he can to support my daughter and me. Andrew is the last part of my family my daughter and I have left. I want to do everything I can now to support him as he did for me. He is an amazing person and deserves the world. At this time, he is on medical leave from work and his medical bills have already started coming in. I cannot take the physical or mental burden from him but I can try my best to help with the financial burden, it will be one less thing for him to worry about so he can focus on healing. We are beyond thankful to his coworkers for setting this up and we appreciate the donations received which will go directly to his medical bills and

cost of living expenses.