This is my husband, Stuart
In June 2020, he was fit, happy, full of life. Healthy diet, exercise, never smoked, had a long, loving relationship. He was a born healer, and found his calling when he became an acupuncturist.
Patients came who had tried everything else, including other acupuncturists. And he healed them.
One morning he had a little trouble swallowing. Cancer was the last thing on our minds.
When his doctor called and said, "I'm so sorry. They've found cancer cells," it still seemed impossible that this healthy, strong, vibrant man could be dangerously ill.
Fifteen months later, we lost him to esophageal cancer.
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During that 15 months, while he bravely endured the rigors of chemo-radiation, and the pain of aggressive cancer, I spent hours each day enmeshed in medical journals.
What I learned was that esophageal cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, and rates are rising fast in the US. Mean survival is 10 - 15 months. Yet it gets little research attention, partly because it is a relatively rare cancer, and partly because it is so complex.
When Stuart's cancer progressed, despite chemo-radiation, we were lucky to be in Boston, where Mass General Hospital's world-renowned researchers and practitioners pursue innovative treatments for esophageal cancer. His oncologist identified a mutation that signaled poor prognosis but also might respond to targeted genetic treatment.
Those targeted treatments were incredible. They took Stuart from a wheelchair and constant pain, to being pain-free and back to hiking daily and fully enjoying life. They gave us 8 more months and - as importantly - his feeling of health and wellbeing for most of the time we had.
Yet only a tiny percent of esophageal cancer patients with this genetic mutation receive these targeted medications.
The world-renowned doctors of Stuart's medical team are making breakthroughs to extend life and improve life quality of esophageal cancer patients. Partnering with other experts worldwide, they aim to turn the diagnosis around so it is no longer a death sentence. They are at the forefront of developing and utilizing genetically-targeted, personalized therapies effective against specific mutations that create the resistant tumors of esophageal cancer.
This is where the K-B Esophageal Cancer Fund and the Treats2Treatments Campaign were born. Stuart and I wanted to do everything we could to support efforts to cure this aggressive, lethal disease and save other families from the suffering and heartbreak we have experienced.
With your help, we can succeed. Working together, we can provide the resources for research and clinical trials that will finally make a difference and give hope to patients facing this devastating prognosis. Please help us support this critical work so those hearing this terrifying diagnosis have a fighting chance.