Support Chantal's Fight Against Cancer

The funds will now be directed to funeral costs and time away from work so Mike can be present with the kids while they all grieve the loss of Chantal. Thank you for supporting them in this time.

Update from Mike:

This morning, (may 26, 2024) my beloved wife and best friend, Chantal Blanchard DeMattia, departed our world to join The Kingdom of The Lord. She fought a tough, 2 ½-year battle against colon cancer, and did so valiantly. I am devastated, but only for myself and everyone else that she loved who was left behind in this world. For I am also comforted in the knowledge that she’s no longer suffering and in a far better place than she’s ever been before.

Chantal and I met in the summer of 2001 under the funniest of circumstances, and I was unaware at that time that I had just been introduced to the sweetest, warmest, and most kind person that I would ever know. And to this day, I cannot believe she chose me. She is better than me. Better than all of us. Words cannot begin express just how much of a blessing and privilege it is to have spent 23+ years with her. Yes, I would give anything to have one more minute, one more conversation with her, but the true beauty of our love for one-another is that we were always on the same side…there was never any underlying tension or suspicion. We were 100% there for each other, and always talked about how we felt with complete honesty. As such, I carry no regrets about things left unsaid because there aren’t any, and I would hope that she sees it the same way. We were each other’s lobster, holding claws in the tank until the very end.

This loss leaves a giant void in each of our lives of myself, our children, Nickolas and Lily, and all her loved ones. But I also believe that those closest to Chantal were irrevocably changed for the better and will carry a part of her with them forever. This is probably the best legacy anyone could ask for.

I love you, sweetie. I’m really going to miss you, but I know we’ll be together again one day.

Update: Chantal was unable to receive the treatment in Seattle as her bilirubin was too high. She has been on dialysis the last couple days, we are now praying that her kidneys will wake up and that her liver function will stabilize.

Funds donated will still go to help with all of the medical needs Chantal has and for care of the family.

Thank you for your generosity!

Chantal is my beautiful friend! She's a wife, mother, sister, daughter, martial arts black belt, hospitality extraordinaire, lover of baseball, Disney fanatic and so much more. Right now she is fighting a stage 4 metastatic colon cancer diagnosis. Chantal needs to take her treatment beyond the scope of chemotherapy so she is going to do something called Histotripsy. Of course this is not covered by insurance, she will be traveling to Seattle for her treatments and will need to stay for a week each time.

We are raising funds to cover the cost of treatment and travel / lodging while she is undergoing therapy. This will be a huge help to the family, please donate if you can! We covet your prayers for healing for Chantal.

Histotripsy definition :

The non-thermal effects of focused ultrasound can also be used for the precise destruction of tissue.

At high enough acoustic intensities with a short pulse duration, small gas bubbles are generated within the targeted tissue. When these bubbles are destroyed through a process called inertial cavitation, a shockwave is generated that is capable of destroying cell membranes and even liquefying or annihilating cells. The use of inertial cavitation to mechanically destroy regions of tissue is known as histotripsy, and is usually the compounded effect of multiple shockwaves. This technique can be very precise, causing minimal damage to surrounding tissue, and the bubbles used in cavitation are easily visible with ultrasound imaging, enabling accurate target verification and monitoring.

Clinically, histotripsy and is being investigated for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and various types of cancer, including liver, kidney, osteosarcoma, and soft tissue tumors.

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/urmc-first-in-nation-to-use-sound-wave-therapy-for-liver-tumors