The Patrick J. Mentzer Foundation

My husband, Patrick James Mentzer, passed away 5/11/2023 after an incredibly courageous 2 year+ battle with metastatic colon cancer. Through his health challenges, we learned the power of advocacy and how our village carried us through it all. We also learned how the hidden costs of cancer add up significantly. The purpose of the foundation named in Patrick's honor will be to help other families navigating cancer with these hidden costs - from instacart memberships to dog walking services... house-keeping and lawn care... childcare and medical travel, family photo shoots, and so much more.

No matter how maxed out our credit cards were, Patrick and I always happily jumped at the opportunity to dump money into our cancer friends' GoFundMe fundraisers. We talked about this legacy project in his final month of life and he was so excited for his story and passing to somehow serve a purpose to help others.

As we grow, we intend to also branch into sponsoring service dogs for cancer patients and their families.

Cancer takes so much - there is really no way to budget for it and the way that the expenses stack up is mind-blowing. Our goal is to help others continue to live and find those critical moments of joy and time to be a family while fighting cancer - just as we did.

I am in the process of formally setting up this foundation and also filing for 501c(3) nonprofit status. If you prefer to wait to make a tax deductible donation, please send me a note so that I can notify you when we are at that step in the process.

All funds raised through this GoFundMe will go toward costs to set up the foundation, and directly to patients and their families to assist with expenses as described above.