Support Karl: Help Save Our Resilient Dad's Life!

Hi, we are William, Kathryn and Mark and are here for our Dad, Karl Hyden, who has terminal cancer. We urgently need your help to keep him alive. We're launching this fundraiser to pay for continued treatment unavailable here in Ireland – we will be raising funds in phases – without which we will lose him. So we thank you for clicking our link. Please help us any way you can - with a much appreciated donation by prayer or pocket and/or by sharing this link with people in your network. Every action taken helps. Thank you.

July 7th Update

William here. Kathryn, Mark and I want to thank you so much for getting us our much-needed 2nd target to get us to €22,000. We are overwhelmed once again by the generosity and kindness of strangers, friends, colleagues. We want to give a big shout-out to our cousins & their partners, many of whom have recently suffered great loss themselves, for being so generous in helping us with our Dad, without whom he could not have got this treatment.

€22,000 is a phenomenal amount of money and at such a short time. We hope you know what it means to us knowing Dad can continue to live his life to the full. You make such a difference whatever your donation by "prayer, pocket or passing the word along". Your contribution made the difference. Dad and Mom are deeply moved by your generosity, and particularly touched by colleagues who have donated and re-donated to help get us over this 2nd line.

From here on out, we'll be taking the final stretch of this marathon and look to raise the last €8,000 we need. In fact, some of our parents' Texas friends have already started for us, so we need a bit over €7,000 left to go. With this in mind, we're raising the goal of the fundraiser to the final amount for the full year of treatment: €30,000. This is the FINAL goal we'll need to secure treatment until June 2023.

Mark and his friends will be staging a musical fundraiser in Cork at months end, but more of that later. Dad has reached his midway point today in Scotland treatment. Mom sent us a photo I share here of him at the end of today's treatment. He's quite the resilient man, just as he coaches others to be.

We are so proud of him, and we are so grateful each to you. Thank you for helping us save Dad.

June 4th Update

Hi, William here again with our most recent update. Thank you all again for all the prayers, good wishes and generosity in donating what you can. Once again we are overwhelmed by the generosity of so many. Today we can see with gratitude that we are very close to reaching our target of funding two of the four sessions which are needed to complete his treatment. With what has already been donated we still urgently need to reach the €10,000 target by the end of this month to reach our current target of €22,000. You have helped us get so close that at the time of writing this update we need a little over €6,000 to reach our current target which is proof that every every donation given helps make a big difference. Equally so we sincerely thank all those who have sent kind words, prayers and good wishes. They lift us so much and we feel as of so many now walk with us on this path with Dad.

Your help remains urgently needed for us to ensure our Dad, Karl can get two of the four treatment sessions needed over the course of a year following his intensive 3 week phase. He is doing well coping with his treatments here. Currently he has weeks of treatments, scans, results and also surgery next week. But the treatment available here will not be sufficient to keep him living life to the fullest possible despite his good humor and resilience.

Without the UK treatment integrated with here he is lost to us. We urgently ask again by prayer pocket or passing on this post that you please from the bottom of our hearts Kathryn, Mark and myself – William, help us save our Dad in any way possible.

His spirit and person was so broken we cannot see him experience such pain and anguish again when we see how the addition of the UK treatment gave him back to himself and to us. It allows him hope. We are so close please help us get over the line to meet this target. We are so grateful and in awe of the amazing support thus far. Thank you is simply inadequate to describe what you are doing for Dad and for our family. You are saving a life, a family and restoring our Hope. Dad says we loved life back into him. You are keeping him here, for us to love. You make a difference!

A reminder – we are raising funds in stages

Again thank you for getting us to our initial target €12,000 by early June 2022 This first phase of our Go Fund Me appeal will fund the first part of Dads treatment which is an intensive 3-week infusion therapy in June/July. You've made this possible, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. But as we said on the launch of our fundraiser, we are raising funds in stages as needed. Now we have launched stage 2 as we need to secure two of the four treatments needed and this is reflected in our interim target of €22,000. Ultimately, with our final stage we will need to raise a total of €30,000 for the rest of the year for all his treatments, medical related expenses and associated costs.

You've helped us get him started. Please help us keep up the momentum and secure his full treatment. Thank you is not enough but most sincere. This combined UK and Irish Therapy restored our normally resilient Dad who was so utterly broken by aggressive chemotherapy, harsh biologic targeted therapy with severe side-effects, and radiation treatments. Not to mention serious surgeries.

May 22nd Update: We're overwhelmed by your generosity! We've reached our first goal of €12,000 to secure his 3-week intensive infusion therapy in June. As we've said before, this is a marathon not a sprint, and we now need to secure his next two treatments following the intensive June therapy which are essential in this life-giving process. We updating our fundraising goal to reflect the additional €10,000 needed for the next two treatments, for our second goal of a total €22,000 to be raised. We need to secure these ongoing treatments urgently, so please continue to share and spread the word however you can. Thank you all so much for what you've done for us so far.

We'll explain everything about this below, so please keep reading!

Our nightmare began when Dad was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer in 2018 and had his Sigmoid Colon removed. From then on it's been a litany of surgeries and therapies, including a major liver resection. We are lucky he survived. Doctors here have told us Dad is over irradiated from extensive radiotherapy, out of surgical options, and chemo is too harsh on him to continue. His feet and fingers still remain numb from his first chemo in January 2019. 

We are almost out of options. We had a specific, but expensive test done on his tumor DNA which showed Dad is one of 3% of people who are suited to targeted therapy. As a result of this, his oncologist here can now use breast cancer drugs to treat colorectal cancer. This has been a lifeline for us, but the treatment is still hard on his system, and he struggles with it.

His doctors in Ireland - as well as in the UK who offer specialized treatment licensed for use in the NHS, UK but unavailable here - are together keeping him alive. For almost four years, we have self funded as a family, draining our parent's savings and eating well into what life insurance Dad had hoped would be there for Mom. We are grateful to our parent’s colleagues who funded the cost of last year’s treatment - but now the cancer is so aggressive it requires intensive therapy both here at home and in the UK.

As his children, we ask for your help so Dad can urgently receive this new phase of intensive treatment in the UK - which the initiation phase alone costs approximately €12,000 for these 3 week clinic stay. However as stated above we will need to raise additional funds on phases to cover the following 4 treatments he needs.

Please donate whatever you can today to help fund this urgent treatment to keep Dad alive, for Mom for us and for his two (soon to be three!) grandkids. Although this treatment is mainstream therapy available across much of the USA, UK, and EU, it is not provided in Ireland, and we sincerely can no longer afford to cover costs on our own or rely solely on the kindness of Mom and Dad's colleagues. Frustratingly, if we lived in mainland EU or UK the cost of this treatment would not be such an issue but as we live in Ireland we have to pay full price for the treatment as well as associated travel and other costs. 

We'd be more than thankful for any help you can give, however little or large, by prayer or pocket or sharing our post with your friends and colleagues. We deeply appreciate your support.

A word from Karl – Our Dad

Hi, I'm Karl, and thanks again for clicking that link! I'm Irish but originally a Texan who fell in love with a beautiful woman from Ireland, where we have lived with our family for the past 26 years. As you've read above, we have 3 adult children and 2 grandchildren (with another on the way). Life was sweet.

Sadly, in 2018 I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer which rapidly progressed to a terminal stage 4 diagnosis, and we're at the point that we need as much help as possible. Every little bit helps, or so I believe whenever l've contributed to Go Fund Me calls for support in the past – so I'd deeply appreciate it if you were able to lend us a hand. I want to be able to hold my newest granddaughter, who is due to be born in November! 

A bit about me 

In my work, I help people: people running businesses, people wanting to do better in their careers, and people (mainly Introverts) who want to be more successful in work and life by understanding how they (and others) tick. I've helped thousands of people throughout my career, and my work is a great source of satisfaction and joy to my life. I love what I do. I often work for free or low cost to help those most in need.

But cancer took my ability to work away, and my life and those of my family were changed forever. Kay cares for me full time and so is unable to go out and earn an income.

Travelling is my passion before Covid and Cancer. I loved taking my children as far afield as possible. Spending time with my family is the most important thing in my life. Adding grandchildren to the mid makes it all the better. I loved going to the gym with Kay and long mountain hikes, but Cancer took this too. 

My friends here, in the USA, UK and beyond who pray for and with us, encourage me to keep going and make me laugh. They are wonderful. 

And so I remain hopeful and ready for the challenges to come. I know I am not am alone. I intend to live. 

My Medical Journey Reads Like a Horror Story – Except it Was Real for My Family and I

 

 

 

A look into my life during treatment...

 

Our Hope For Dad 

In 2020, our Mom, Kay, (who was well into her PhD which she gave up to care for Dad) was trawling through medical journals and various research papers on approaches that would lessen the chemo side effects. She found the medical approach of drug infusions called Mistletoe Therapy, she out initially through colleagues and the non-profit cancer Ireland website that this treatment is used globally. However, it was from the world-renowned Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Center in New York she first read about actual clinical progress in harmony with existing more common treatments.e.g. chemo. After further research it was found that this treatment was available across the EU and UK but not in Ireland. There was a long wait list everywhere she looked.

Undeterred, Mom was able to find an NHS trust in Scotland that offered the therapy at a comparatively low cost to other centers in Europe and could take Dad that summer. Based on the evidence we decided to give it a shot, and he started the Mistletoe Therapy in Scotland, initially for a two-week intensive period and then ongoing for infusions every 3 months for a week each time.

We can honestly say it has given him back his life and given us back our Dad. To tell you how much this means to Mom would take too long, but you can imagine her sorrow and fears. This treatment reduces the most harsh side effects of the cancer treatments and allows him to live again. He has more energy for his family, including hugging his grandchildren and just holding Mom’s hand, which was denied them both for so long. He can now even contemplate returning to his beloved work in the future. He gives so much to help people. We need to help him do what he does best: Make life better for so many!

 

 

 

 

Finally - Our Goal for Our Dad

Dad and Mom’s professional colleagues fundraised for the Mistletoe Treatments last year - and they were incredibly generous. We self funded as possible prior to and afterwards. Unfortunately, due to rising fuel/travel costs, Covid, etc, we've run out of our personal funds. Go Fund Me is our sole hope.

Now, given the aggressive pace of the disease, Dad needs a new protocol and to keep him alive with some real quality of life. He must undertake the extended, 3-week intensive infusion process in June and July 2022. For the other months over the next year he will need to go for one week every 3 months, which is a fraction of the cost, but still costly. The research is good, and this treatment is evidenced based. More importantly, it works for Dad.

This is where we need your help. Dad nearly has his life back due to the UK Treatments working with those here, and we hope for him to get back on his feet after years of his not being able to work regularly, nor Mom as she cares for him. These continued treatments are vital. We are focusing on raising funds for the next 12 months of treatments, but for right now our initial target is just for this intensive 3-week treatment in June/July 2022.

We are fundraising in stages. Our first goal is to raise funds to cover the June/July 2022 treatment, travel, accommodation, food, etc. This will be roughly €12,000 / $12,500.

Upon success of reaching this target our next goal is to raise funds for the first two of Dad’s treatments which we must assure by end of June. This will be €10,000 and finally we hope to raise the funds for his final two treatments throughout the remainder of the 12 months. This will be roughly a total of about €30,000 for the year. We will update our goals on this page once we reach our targets.

Thanks for reading so far….

So now that you're here, we'd like to simply thank you for reading and again ask for your help. Please help us save Dad, no matter how small a gift you can share. Simply put, it helps keep Dad alive.

Can you share this fundraiser link with your friends and family, and spread the word about our hopes for Dad? It might also help others learn about the approach our family has taken and help others know what works for us may help them too.

Because we have seen this treatment work so well for Dad. How can we stop now? These treatments have made all the difference in our entire family’s life - it's given Dad his energy and hope back. It's helping keep us all going through the tough times that chemo and the new anti-cancer drugs with their horrific side effects on Dad's body and at times spirit. But, since the UK treatment became part of his care, he has the energy and wellness he needs. Along with what he gets here in Ireland, Dad can continue seeing our family grow, hold his newest granddaughter in November and pursue his work in the future.

All our lives we've seen our parents generously give and give in time, talent and financially as they could to those in need. We hope they will now be given to in their time of need, when Dad’s life in need of saving. Our Mom and Dad love one another so much after 37 years since falling in love at first sight in South Texas literally across a crowded room only to elope and marry a short time later. They still give each other that warm glance and just connect.

We and the grandkids need them. We love them. They are great parents, and we say "In the lottery for parents, we did good". Our Dad, Karl, is so resilient and positive. He walks his professional talk. He's only in his 50s, it's too soon to leave when we have a treatment to help keep him going. Please help us help Dad get this treatment that keeps him with us all.

 

 

Thanks for your time in reading this and for whatever you can do, please know you make a difference!