Help Mike Gallant be a Cancer Survivor!

Just over a year ago, our brother Mike was delivered the kind of news nobody wants to ever hear - the dreaded “c” word with no life sustaining treatment available in Canada.

 

Anyone who knows Mike is not surprised by the positive attitude Mike had with his diagnosis, most of the time telling doctors they were full of crap and he was just fine. Being one of the most caring, self-less, hilarious, and positive people most of us know he's spent the last year convincing us everything is going to be OK with his funny doctor jokes and smiles. Mike shares his life with his wife, best friend, and health care advocate Lori of 22 years and together they love their two daughters (Leah(18) and Miley(14)), son (Cody -12), two dogs (Skip & Rocky ) and two bunnies (Energizer & Peter Rabbit). Family means the world to Mike and Mike is the world to his family.

Mike is the kind of guy who you'd ask or even just mention something needed and he immediately makes the time to help.. People in his family, his friends and his community have been on more than one occasion on the receiving end of Mike's generosity. How many of us can say we've hung posters at our kids' parties, handed out memory cards for family members he had made, had him show up to volunteer at an event or just showed up with a joke or a smile when you needed it most? Mike has spent so much of his time volunteering over the years for so many important causes and organizations like the board of directors of the SFSC, he’s been a hockey coach, a Girl Guides volunteer, fundraising for hockey teams within the West Hill Minor Hockey Association as well as his kids schools over the years and so many more. . He’s known for the Golf tournaments he’s organized with last years tournament in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Mike urgently needs our help so that he can receive life saving surgery as soon as possible - surgery that just can’t be had in Canada or North America. This surgery as you can imagine is incredibly expense. The procedure will cost $61,000 USD, add to that the cost of airfare and accommodations. This treatment will require 3 separate visits to Israel 8 weeks apart.

 

We'd be remiss if we didn't share the story of the journey Mike has been on for just over a year and the plan we have to not give up and to provide him with every single possibility of treatment available. On February 15, 2021 doctors diagnosed a stage 4 colorectal cancer with metastasis to the peritoneal. The peritoneal is the saran wrap that encompasses all our organs in our abdomen. It is a cancer that has little to no treatment options in Canada.

After completing 13 rounds of chemotherapy Mike went to the hospital in hopes of receiving a new procedure in Canada, HIPEC. HIPEC, is only available in Ontario at Mount Sinai Hospital and the province only has 3 doctors trained to perform it and they work as one team. Unfortunately there was more disease present than the HIPEC team was able to take care of so no treatment was complete.

Michael has been approved for PIPAC treatment at the Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Aviv, Israel. The PIPAC treatment. is a surgical procedure that involves aerosolizing chemo (kinda like hairspray) and injecting directly into the abdomen. It is a less invasive treatment than the HIPEC that has shown up to a 77% regression of the disease. If successful than we can proceed with the HIPEC which offers a possible cure for this cancer. Doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital have agreed to evaluate Michael for HIPEC after completion of PIPAC in Israel.

Traditional chemo will control the spread but will do nothing to stop the growth of the existing cancer.

 

Mike and his family have been through so much this year and since Canada can’t give him what he needs medically at this time, we are reaching out to all of you!

 

Please donate any amount you can so that together we can help get him where he needs to be! He has a lifetime ahead of him, and with his unbelievable positive attitude and his determination to beat cancer he WILL do it with our help! He so deserves to watch his children grow into adults and to spend many more years with the love of his life Lori!

 

Thank you so much,

Melissa & Michelle