Help Jay and his young family Cope with Cancer
Donation protected
This shouldn’t be a picture of a family dealing with a brain cancer diagnosis, but it is.
On December 20, 2020 their lives changed forever. Elise and Jason (Jay) started the day delivering Christmas cookies to friends and family around their Winnipeg home and ended it with a 911 call because Jay couldn’t speak. The next few days were filled with fear, sadness and anger as they learned that Elise’s husband and best friend had a large brain tumour that needed immediate surgery. It was cancerous.
Covid restrictions meant Elise couldn’t be with him, so Jay had to cope with it all alone — waiting in an Emergency room hallway while he had seizure after seizure, hearing the brain cancer diagnosis, and undergoing open brain surgery on Christmas eve, while Elise stayed home with their two-year-old daughter, putting out cookies and milk and pretending that Santa was still coming.
Jay spent the next month recovering from surgery and coming to terms with the neurological deficits left behind by the tumour and the surgery. The pathology report confirmed the worst: a grade-4 Glioblastoma - an aggressive form of brain cancer. There is no cure.
With illusions of someday
Cast in a golden light
No dress rehearsal
This is our life
- Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip
Even with having removed 90% of the tumour, this is a very aggressive cancer, so the hope is that radiation and chemo treatments (which he will endure for the next year) will merely slow tumour regrowth. Nothing will stop it.
Jay is my nephew-in-law, and the greatest guy you could ever meet. Elise is my niece. And their baby is the apple of my sister's eye. Bright and funny-as-hell, with a rascally sense of humour his daughter was learning to emulate, Jay now struggles with language and other neurological deficits that are exacerbated by the radiation and chemo treatments he needs to keep him with us.
Jay is a wonderful father, and a dedicated husband. But he can't work anymore. And Elise has had to take a leave from work in order to care for Jay and their two-year-old (who can't go to daycare because Covid puts Jay at even more risk). They have had to find a new home for their special-needs dog and are now selling the fixer-upper home that they once dreamed of renovating. Soon, they will make the long move to Ontario to make it easier for Jay to participate in clinical trials that may help to extend or improve the quality of his life.
Jay and Elise made a modest living. While insurance is helpful, it will not cover the thousands needed for year-long chemotherapy and trips to the hospital, the move to Ontario, and the money needed to try to make a life there. They are selling most of what they own, but it will cost thousands to move what’s left and to buy plane tickets for the three of them. They plan to live with relatives, sharing their small townhouse, but it’s a temporary solution. There is simply not enough money to rent a place of their own and replacing the home they had in Winnipeg is now an impossible dream.
Elise’s heart breaks explaining to their two-year-old why Daddy is different — that he can’t take care of her or play with her the way he used to, that he needs treatments and medicine and quiet. She wants her daughter to have a more normal environment, to limit the damage wrought by this devastating experience, to have the healthy, happy life we all wish for our children. Experts have advised finding her a place to go for respite, a pre-school program, and professional counselling for all of them. But all of these cost money they do not have.
Your support can't cure Jay, but it will make the journey less difficult for him and his family. Your support can help them afford rent, pre-school, and counselling. It can help them pay for Jay’s chemotherapy and to pursue the clinical trials that may give him more time to spend with the little girl he hopes to walk to school one day.
No one could help the fact that - while so many of us enjoyed a relaxing Christmas holiday season - Jay lay in a hospital bed alone, having to cope with his worst fears.
But we can show him that we are with him now. Your contribution will demonstrate to Jay and Elise and their two year old daughter that they are not alone by helping them cover costs of pursuing the best possible medical treatments to buy Jay every minute we can.
We are tremendously grateful for your support.
On December 20, 2020 their lives changed forever. Elise and Jason (Jay) started the day delivering Christmas cookies to friends and family around their Winnipeg home and ended it with a 911 call because Jay couldn’t speak. The next few days were filled with fear, sadness and anger as they learned that Elise’s husband and best friend had a large brain tumour that needed immediate surgery. It was cancerous.
Covid restrictions meant Elise couldn’t be with him, so Jay had to cope with it all alone — waiting in an Emergency room hallway while he had seizure after seizure, hearing the brain cancer diagnosis, and undergoing open brain surgery on Christmas eve, while Elise stayed home with their two-year-old daughter, putting out cookies and milk and pretending that Santa was still coming.
Jay spent the next month recovering from surgery and coming to terms with the neurological deficits left behind by the tumour and the surgery. The pathology report confirmed the worst: a grade-4 Glioblastoma - an aggressive form of brain cancer. There is no cure.
With illusions of someday
Cast in a golden light
No dress rehearsal
This is our life
- Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip
Even with having removed 90% of the tumour, this is a very aggressive cancer, so the hope is that radiation and chemo treatments (which he will endure for the next year) will merely slow tumour regrowth. Nothing will stop it.
Jay is my nephew-in-law, and the greatest guy you could ever meet. Elise is my niece. And their baby is the apple of my sister's eye. Bright and funny-as-hell, with a rascally sense of humour his daughter was learning to emulate, Jay now struggles with language and other neurological deficits that are exacerbated by the radiation and chemo treatments he needs to keep him with us.
Jay is a wonderful father, and a dedicated husband. But he can't work anymore. And Elise has had to take a leave from work in order to care for Jay and their two-year-old (who can't go to daycare because Covid puts Jay at even more risk). They have had to find a new home for their special-needs dog and are now selling the fixer-upper home that they once dreamed of renovating. Soon, they will make the long move to Ontario to make it easier for Jay to participate in clinical trials that may help to extend or improve the quality of his life.
Jay and Elise made a modest living. While insurance is helpful, it will not cover the thousands needed for year-long chemotherapy and trips to the hospital, the move to Ontario, and the money needed to try to make a life there. They are selling most of what they own, but it will cost thousands to move what’s left and to buy plane tickets for the three of them. They plan to live with relatives, sharing their small townhouse, but it’s a temporary solution. There is simply not enough money to rent a place of their own and replacing the home they had in Winnipeg is now an impossible dream.
Elise’s heart breaks explaining to their two-year-old why Daddy is different — that he can’t take care of her or play with her the way he used to, that he needs treatments and medicine and quiet. She wants her daughter to have a more normal environment, to limit the damage wrought by this devastating experience, to have the healthy, happy life we all wish for our children. Experts have advised finding her a place to go for respite, a pre-school program, and professional counselling for all of them. But all of these cost money they do not have.
Your support can't cure Jay, but it will make the journey less difficult for him and his family. Your support can help them afford rent, pre-school, and counselling. It can help them pay for Jay’s chemotherapy and to pursue the clinical trials that may give him more time to spend with the little girl he hopes to walk to school one day.
No one could help the fact that - while so many of us enjoyed a relaxing Christmas holiday season - Jay lay in a hospital bed alone, having to cope with his worst fears.
But we can show him that we are with him now. Your contribution will demonstrate to Jay and Elise and their two year old daughter that they are not alone by helping them cover costs of pursuing the best possible medical treatments to buy Jay every minute we can.
We are tremendously grateful for your support.
Organizer and beneficiary
Paulanne Jushkevich
Organizer
Mississauga, ON
Elise Timmings Brownlee
Beneficiary