Roland Merrill's Hospital Funds

In October of 2022, my dad turned yellow.

Thus began the beginnings of a cancer diagnosis.

Seventeen years prior to this beginning was another. Caused by a fight with his ulcerative colitis, cancer was found permeating his entire colon, and a full colectomy was required. By the end, he had been literally gutted, but he was alive, cancer free, and on the path the recovery.

Between then and now were corrective surgeries, spinal surgeries, medication adjustments, and more, but nothing as frighting as cancer, and nothing beyond Mom and Dad's financial capabilities to endure and overcome.

This is that dad I grew up knowing, and through it all, I've never known him to be less than a generous and gregarious man in any instance he can be. He gave of his time and body when he was healthy, and when he wasn't he gave his knowledge and mind, and all this he did with his whole heart, teaching me by shining example to live charitably and joyfully.

So when Dad began to look jaundiced there was apprehension, but an expectation of something of a quick fix. We certainly weren't expecting them to find cancer in his gallbladder and lymph nodes, or for his thirty-year-standing diagnosis of ulcerative colitis to be overturned and given a shiny new label of PSC (primary sclerosing cholangitis). A cancer-causing, chronic liver disease, and bile duct poisoning disease.

In the five months since Dad has had exploratory surgeries and biopsies, had his gallbladder and lymph nodes removed, and had his stomach and pancreas cut into. He's lost a dangerous amount of weight and has been started on a low-dose round of chemotherapy. And the bills have become too much to weather without help.

With permission and the hope instilled in me by my courageous dad, I'm extending the hand of charity to any who find themselves able and willing to accept. Please help our family to weather this storm.