Officer Stopczynski's cancer battle

One of the members of the St. Joseph County Police Department needs help in a fight against cancer. Corporal Kyle Stopczynski has been with the St. Joseph County Police Department for nearly 7 years, 6 of those years have been in the patrol division. The past two years Kyle has spent his time working in the Street Crimes Unit and he has recently been diagnosed with myxopapillary pendymoma. There’s no good age for someone to get cancer, but it is particularly scary when a young guy hears the “c” word. 

Recently Kyle was outdoors hunting with a friend when he slipped. That slip resulted in substantial back pain. For being such a minor incident, Kyle realized the pain was greater than what would otherwise be reasonable to expect. Days passed and the pain grew greater—he finally went to the hospital for help. After a few tests, doctors found masses near his tailbone and on his spine. After more tests, the diagnosis was cancer.

Doctors explained to Kyle that his cancer was a very rare form of cancer, so much so that he would need to go elsewhere to receive the appropriate treatment from doctors with particular experience with his type. Less than 1100 cases of this particular cancer are diagnosed each year. Kyle’s doctors told him that there was a center located in Houston, Texas that would give him the best hope for treatment. Kyle and his wife, Amber, are now making arrangements to head to Houston. Because of the severity of this type of cancer and the size of the tumors, Kyle must stay in Houston to complete the treatment. At this point, no one knows how long Kyle and Amber will need to be in Houston.

This is where we come in. Medical bills are expensive. Life is expensive. Medical bills and life away from home are very expensive. With an unknown course of treatment, no one knows how long Kyle and Amber will have to be out of town and out of work undergoing treatments. With these donations, we want to attempt to ease the financial burdens that this illness will bring to Kyle and Amber so that they can focus on fighting. Any donation, in any amount, will help with the medical bills and with the expenses that will happen as they stay in Houston to fight Kyle’s cancer. Any donation you can make, even any message in support, would be greatly appreciated by everyone who knows Kyle. Please show Kyle and Amber, and their whole family, that our thoughts and prayers are with them during and that he will never fight alone. We want to get Kyle back healthy and back serving our community. Please help us.