In March of 2020, we noticed a few irregularities in my father, facial drooping, slurred speech, and walking issues to name a few. We suspected a transient ischemic attack, sometimes referred to as a mini-stroke. We urged him to go to the doctor and see what was going on.  The doctor said it was nothing since he didn’t see any of the symptoms we had described.  He diagnosed my father with an upper respiratory infection and sent him on his way.  We advocated for my father and insisted the doctor send my father for an MRI or something to see what was really going on.  After seeing pictures of facial drooping, the doctor ordered the MRI.  The MRI revealed a plum-sized tumor in my father’s right frontal lobe.  A neurosurgeon and oncologist both recommended the removal of the tumor so they could have a better understanding of what they were dealing with.  After the tumor was removed and the tests were run, the diagnosis was what we feared…brain cancer.  Not just any brain cancer a GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) grade 5. 

The doctors told us this was the most aggressive and evasive form of brain cancer there is and the prognosis was at best 18 months to 2 years.  This was not the case for our father, a secondary tumor was being hidden by the first and our 18 months turned to 6 IF the chemo and radiation worked. Again, the cancer had other thoughts.  Six months ultimately turned into 49 days.  We lost our father on May 7, 2020.  A brother, father, veteran, and papa was taken too soon.  This loss was the driving force for me to do something, anything, to drive awareness around this terrible cancer.