Support for the Chick Family

Team fundraiser

Michelle Holme and Damian Smith are organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Christina Chick.

Donation protected

Hey friends,

Thanks for clicking. We (Damian & Shelly) have started this fundraiser to support part of our family, the Chick Family, through a major medical crisis; a stroke, several trips to Regina for tests, a cancer diagnosis requiring travel out of the province for treatment, more tests, plus all the costs of keeping a family afloat through it all.

Christopher is our brother-in-law; I (Shelly) met Chris in 2010, when Damian & I got together and he was forced to socialize with me (haha!) from thereafter. Chris & Chrissie (our sister) celebrated 20 years together this year. They have three children who all live at home; Isaac (18), Keegan (16), and Tatum (11). Since they moved to Saskatchewan in 2015, the Chick household has been the hub for many BBQs, holiday dinners, sleepovers, and parties. They are our family, but also our close friends.

Christopher is a husband, a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a grandson, a handyman extraordinaire, an IT whiz, a lover of animals, the best person to play Cards Against Humanity with, the life of the party. He has a generous heart, and can ALWAYS make you laugh. He’s been a volunteer at the Lipton Mud Bogs the past few years, and helped people out with his time and expertise (seriously, there isn’t a thing the man can’t fix), us included, more times than we can count. As you can see from the photos, this is a much-loved member of our family.

A week after turning 40, Chris had a medical emergency. Chrissie whisked him off to the closest ER, where he was sent to Regina via ambulance to have a CT scan which confirmed he’d had a stroke; they saw something else on the scan that was concerning, and it turns out what they saw was a tumour, specifically ocular melanoma in his left eye. He has to travel to Calgary for radiation, as treatment for his specific cancer is not offered in Saskatchewan. He leaves next week (Sep 26) and will be away from home for at least two weeks.

Chris will have the support of his parents, siblings, and extended family while in Alberta, but there will be costs associated with back and forth travel. We don’t know how long Chris will need to be off work, and he is the primary income source of the family, and we don’t know if he will get any wage replacement for the time he will need to be off yet. Chrissie is a small business owner, and *just* got the keys to a brick-and-mortar store in their community for all things locally handmade right before this happened.

The sunny side is that after several more tests, it looks like the eye tumour is the only cancer Chris has, and it hasn’t spread!!

The future is full of unknowns right now, and we want to help them cross “how will we pay for this?” off the list of unknowns. We are so hopeful that this will be a swift and effective treatment, and that he will be able to keep his eye and vision, but if anyone can rock having to wear an eyepatch, it’s Christopher!!

Thank-you for reading, and if you are able to donate, know that we, the Chicks, and the Smiths appreciate you helping us all give the “family finger” to cancer!!

If you want to contribute but are not comfortable donating via GoFundMe, you can get in touch with me via Facebook Messenger.