Support Mike de Boer in his battle with Cancer

My brother-in-law, Mike de Boer, an amazing father, husband, friend, and the face of Bay Photo Lab in Santa Cruz, was diagnosed on September 20th 2022 with an extremely rare and very aggressive life threatening cancer called Neuroendocrine Poorly Differentiated Ampullary cancer. This is a cancer that affects everything from liver functions to the health of the pancreas and gallbladder. Mike was a perfectly healthy 53 year old, until he was told this terrible news.

Mike has served the larger Santa Cruz Community for 24 years, working at Bay Photo and helping thousands of customers with their photo projects. He is a much beloved, dedicated and warm presence in the community. He knows the names of hundreds of customers by memory and has seen generations of families come into the shop. He is a great resource for the film photography community in Santa Cruz, which has exploded in recent years. With his endless dedication behind the counter, he has made many, many friends among customers and he truly adores his team of amazing Bay Photo employees.

Besides being a well known Bay Photo personality, Mike is also a prominent Facebook administrator for various fantasy miniature collecting and trading groups. These groups include the Oldhammer Community, the Barter Bucket, Santa Cruz Warhammer and Oldhammer USA/Canada, which have a combined global membership of over 25,000. He is the founder of the last three groups.

The world of Mike’s wife and two daughters has been turned upside down by this news. His direct family and his work family are devastated by the diagnosis and everyone is gearing up to help Mike battle this cancer. He will start Chemo and Immuno therapies in mid-October and will not be able to work for months. After the first 2 rounds of chemotherapy, if the cancer has not spread, he will have to undergo a Whipple operation - a very invasive surgery that is the standard for saving the lives of cancer patients with this type of disease. This surgery in itself will have a long recovery.

Costs will be high and unpredictable - it is unclear what insurance will cover, especially because there is so little known about Mike’s cancer. Unfortunately there is no time to project costs - Mike’s cancer has been diagnosed as extremely aggressive: on a scale from 0-100 it was deemed to be 80. So treatment has to start as soon as possible and has been planned to begin October 10th.

He already has undergone one surgery and will need to get another soon to clear up blockages from the liver to the intestines, probably in between his chemotherapy sessions.

Mike has received unconditional support from Bay Photo’s management team and ownership, with many texts and calls of support - it means so much to him. He loves his job and can’t wait to rejoin the team, whenever that happens. His last week of work will be Oct 3-7, so come say hi before Mike starts his battle with this cancer.