Help Mark get to the finish line for his dream car
Donation protected
My name is Mark Nadeau, and this is my story:
15 years ago I had the unfortunate luck of being diagnosed with pineal cytoma aka a brain tumor. It was not cancerous but was a dangerous tumor located on my brain stem. I had a 2 in 5 chance of making it out of surgery without complications. Luckily I survived! Yay me!
Fast forward to December 2020:
As if 2020 hasn’t been challenging enough with the loss of lives due to the pandemic etc, I began to experience new symptoms that were unfortunately similar to what happened 15 years ago. It started in November while at work; I began having headaches and ended up side swiping my brand-new work truck. I’ve been with the company for 30-years and have never had an accident. Come to find out I have lost peripheral vision in my left eye. Needless to say, this prompted a trip to the doctor’s office. So, I went, and he sent me for an MRI…WELL that didn’t turn out so well! Next thing you know you’re in an ambulance and going to Tufts in Boston. During the ambulance ride I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on. They told me they found a tumor and severe brain swelling,and we were going to have a surgeon check it out. Rounds of steroids were done for the swelling. Great…here we go again. The surgeon said no matter what it needed to come out! So I put what I could in order but was kind of sick to my stomach. I went into Boston where Dr Wu performed surgery and removed as
much of the tumor as possible, and off to the lab it went. While you have this uneasy feeling, you wait for the call. We were told to come up to see an oncologist to review the results. I was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, which is a brain tumor that spreads rapidly. As you are talking to the doctor, she is saying things like there is no cure only treatment. Well I’m thinking to myself…this can’t be good. She gives you the name and you still don’t understand it, until you google it and HOLY SHIT!!!! It’s one of the worst possible kinds of cancer you could get. You are going to die. When I was young, I always had fast cars. Then we grow up, start a family, and make a life for them. Well somewhere along the way we kind of want to be a kid again, I guess they call it midlife crisis. I’d like to think of it as a chance to finally fulfill a childhood dream, so I bought a 1974 Plymouth Duster and began the work to totally restore it.
When I purchased it, it was a 318 car with a 4 speed. I came up with a plan and went to work. I bought a 360 and started building a crazy motor. While going to swap meets and looking online for parts, I met a guy named Mike. For some reason we hit it off really good as he started teaching me how to build a Mopar engine. Well come to find out this guy owns a racing engine shop. He built me a crazy set of heads and custom ground me a camshaft. I have spent everything I could and invested a lot of money on chasing my dream. I was really excited and on my way to building my car. Funny how some people say WELL IT’S ONLY A CAR. Well to me it’s not. You become in tune with it, you put your heart and soul in it, hours upon hours you become one with the car. You start dreaming about things you would do if you only had the time and money. Well then it becomes your savior, because no matter how you feel, you go out in your garage, and continue to make your dream come true. As you progress and see how awesome it looks and sounds, you feel a sense of accomplishment.
Most guys that build muscle cars only drive them when they can get their buddies together. Their wives hate it and on and on. I am really lucky because my wife loves it almost as much as me. Always finding a way to take a ride, like she wants me to take her to the store lol and take the Duster. Even though my car is not a show car, we take it to shows to see what other people have, and just to have fun. She and I are always driving around. I still have a plan before I die and that is to finish this build somehow. It’s not only a lifelong dream but will be therapeutic for me while going through treatments. I begin radiation and chemo on January 19th 2021, going Monday thru Friday for 6 weeks at a time. Being able to go out to the garage to work on the car and clear my mind brings me peace. I would like to get the parts before I start losing the ability to use my hands, or my brain function deteriorates, making it so I can’t do it anymore. I am around $7500 away from making my dream a reality. Any help towards my goal will be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your time and wish you well
15 years ago I had the unfortunate luck of being diagnosed with pineal cytoma aka a brain tumor. It was not cancerous but was a dangerous tumor located on my brain stem. I had a 2 in 5 chance of making it out of surgery without complications. Luckily I survived! Yay me!
Fast forward to December 2020:
As if 2020 hasn’t been challenging enough with the loss of lives due to the pandemic etc, I began to experience new symptoms that were unfortunately similar to what happened 15 years ago. It started in November while at work; I began having headaches and ended up side swiping my brand-new work truck. I’ve been with the company for 30-years and have never had an accident. Come to find out I have lost peripheral vision in my left eye. Needless to say, this prompted a trip to the doctor’s office. So, I went, and he sent me for an MRI…WELL that didn’t turn out so well! Next thing you know you’re in an ambulance and going to Tufts in Boston. During the ambulance ride I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on. They told me they found a tumor and severe brain swelling,and we were going to have a surgeon check it out. Rounds of steroids were done for the swelling. Great…here we go again. The surgeon said no matter what it needed to come out! So I put what I could in order but was kind of sick to my stomach. I went into Boston where Dr Wu performed surgery and removed as
much of the tumor as possible, and off to the lab it went. While you have this uneasy feeling, you wait for the call. We were told to come up to see an oncologist to review the results. I was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, which is a brain tumor that spreads rapidly. As you are talking to the doctor, she is saying things like there is no cure only treatment. Well I’m thinking to myself…this can’t be good. She gives you the name and you still don’t understand it, until you google it and HOLY SHIT!!!! It’s one of the worst possible kinds of cancer you could get. You are going to die. When I was young, I always had fast cars. Then we grow up, start a family, and make a life for them. Well somewhere along the way we kind of want to be a kid again, I guess they call it midlife crisis. I’d like to think of it as a chance to finally fulfill a childhood dream, so I bought a 1974 Plymouth Duster and began the work to totally restore it.
When I purchased it, it was a 318 car with a 4 speed. I came up with a plan and went to work. I bought a 360 and started building a crazy motor. While going to swap meets and looking online for parts, I met a guy named Mike. For some reason we hit it off really good as he started teaching me how to build a Mopar engine. Well come to find out this guy owns a racing engine shop. He built me a crazy set of heads and custom ground me a camshaft. I have spent everything I could and invested a lot of money on chasing my dream. I was really excited and on my way to building my car. Funny how some people say WELL IT’S ONLY A CAR. Well to me it’s not. You become in tune with it, you put your heart and soul in it, hours upon hours you become one with the car. You start dreaming about things you would do if you only had the time and money. Well then it becomes your savior, because no matter how you feel, you go out in your garage, and continue to make your dream come true. As you progress and see how awesome it looks and sounds, you feel a sense of accomplishment.
Most guys that build muscle cars only drive them when they can get their buddies together. Their wives hate it and on and on. I am really lucky because my wife loves it almost as much as me. Always finding a way to take a ride, like she wants me to take her to the store lol and take the Duster. Even though my car is not a show car, we take it to shows to see what other people have, and just to have fun. She and I are always driving around. I still have a plan before I die and that is to finish this build somehow. It’s not only a lifelong dream but will be therapeutic for me while going through treatments. I begin radiation and chemo on January 19th 2021, going Monday thru Friday for 6 weeks at a time. Being able to go out to the garage to work on the car and clear my mind brings me peace. I would like to get the parts before I start losing the ability to use my hands, or my brain function deteriorates, making it so I can’t do it anymore. I am around $7500 away from making my dream a reality. Any help towards my goal will be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your time and wish you well
Organizer
Mark Nadeau
Organizer
Dighton, MA