Join Jason's Battle Against Colorectal Cancer

In December of 2024, Jason had a colonoscopy as a follow up to a medical emergency he experienced a few months earlier - an exceedingly rare intussusception of the large intestine. This particular medical emergency we later learned has only a 0-2% survival rate. He spent months recovering and began to look toward normalcy again. At the colonoscopy in December, his surgeon found a large tumor in the lower portion of his colon. After weeks of scans and appointments, Jason was diagnosed with stage 3a colorectal cancer. The past weeks have been a flurry of doctor appointments, consultations, an attempt at holiday normalcy, navigating telling the kids their dad has cancer at Christmas, and now the beginning stages of his treatment.

There are people in this life who live loudly, with exuberance, and excitement, people who are always searching and pushing for what’s next. Jason is one of those people. He rarely sits still, and instead fills his days with projects and people, volunteering, coaching, advocating. He lives a life of busyness and service. His family, his friends, his people, they are everything to him! Being a dad, and father figure to the many kids who have come in and out of his home over the years has and continues to be the greatest joy of his life!

His days are always full. His phone is constantly pinging with phone calls and text messages. His calendar chock full of obligations and responsibilities, all of which he loves! Jason never meets a stranger and will talk endlessly with anyone because he genuinely loves being with and helping people. His summers are filled with OneSight vision missions, where he has met some of his best friends, where he volunteers alongside teams of folks singularly focused on helping kids literally see the world better. This passion has taken him all over the world, and has brought him immense joy and fulfillment. His fall days are packed with coaching volleyball, helping the girls on his team learn not only how to excel at the game of volleyball, but how to be good, honest and generous people. Those couple of months each fall are so important to him. He loves being a coach! In between all of that, he has spent more than a dozen years as a volunteer firefighter, EMT and Fire Department President. He’s joyfully devoted his time and energies to helping people at the lowest points of their lives, to protecting them and to letting them know they are not alone. Being of service is in his very bones. Helping people, easing their burdens, lifting them up are the things that keep him going.

But cancer doesn’t care about your hopes and dreams, or your obligations and responsibilities. Jason is in treatment now and the physical strain of those treatments are just beginning to take a toll on his wellbeing. He’s navigating being a dad, husband, cancer patient, battling nausea and physical pain, all the while working as an optician at the VA. He is currently receiving combination radiation and pill form chemotherapy. These will be continue for a total of 28 treatments, everyday, Monday - Friday. Once these treatments are complete, he will have more scans and imaging done, and his tumor will be restaged. Currently, the plan is for a 4-6 week break, followed by the implantation of a port, through which he will receive infusion chemotherapy. It will be a 3 day infusion, the first day at the cancer center for a few hours and then he will leave to go home with his infusion pack attached. On day 3, he will return to the cancer center to have the infusion pack removed. This will continue for 6-8 cycles, spaced out every two weeks. He will be on this chemo regimen, in theory, for roughly 4 months in total. His doctors are hopeful this combination of treatment will result in eradication of the tumor, and that surgery will be unnecessary. Of course, we can never know how these things will go for sure but these are our current expectations.

The capacity he has to continue working for now is a blessing. It keeps him busy and connected to people in a way that gives him hope and encouragement. But he very realistically may not be able to continue working straight through the full time of his treatment. As we know, cancer is expensive. Being sick in this country is shockingly expensive. The cost of treatments, medications, travel, missed work time, supportive care, and daily expenses is a lot to keep on top of. Asking for help is difficult, but we’ve decided as a family that it is time to do so. If you feel compelled, if you have even a few dollars, or even if you can simply share this page, every bit of it will make a massive difference in easing the burdens of real life amidst navigating cancer.

Jason, Tricia and the kids are doing their very best to keep their lives on track and stay on top of their very busy schedules. They are finding joy in being together, and seeing life with a whole new kind of clarity. Cancer does that for you. They are blessed to have each other and a beautiful network of friends and family to lean on. Every phone call and text, every message reminding them that they are not alone, that others are lifting Jason and them up means the world. Please keep sending those!

Thank you, friends! Let’s help Jason kick cancer’s ass so we can all have a celebration at the end!