Hey everyone! We’re working on the spaghetti dinner fundraiser to have our local community come together to support Greg! Donations are starting to roll in, plans are getting set into place, and now we just need more prayers! Let’s pray Greg can be healthy and get to go to camp to see his family at the end of the month! Please consider purchasing a ticket for the event!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1E7soPaoSs/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We can’t wait to see you all!

Hey everyone, this is Kandice! 

As much as we all hate asking for help— we’re at a point now where we’re running out of options.  So we’re choosing to reach out to those of you who have been following along on this journey, and to those in our community who know Greg or maybe who don’t know us personally even, but can relate or understand what we’re going through. Many of you may or may not know, that my step father, Greg, has been battling cancer that’s progressed in multiple forms over the last 5 years. 

Greg has always been a hardworking, family man who loves spending time at home with his favorite furry animals playing his PlayStation or playing roller coaster tycoon. He came to PA and never turned back. Jumping into many roles and quickly becoming a vital member of our community. You may recognize him not only because he’s so tall for one (so he’s hard to miss), but because he worked so many years for multiple companies always helping others in one form or another. Valley tire for MANY years, good’s tire services— both jobs he loved and still misses the truck/tire work to this day, doing over night road calls for multiple years, and working on all the big trucks and manhandling tires bigger then he was, coming home covered in grease and who knows what else sometimes… he also worked at Sam’s club and Martin’s for a time, amongst a few other places I’m sure. Him and my mom both have always helped others, my mom worked for many years doing work for skills and even took care of individuals in our home over the years. In fact, they even still took care of someone after the initial diagnosis- because they didn’t want to uproot and change everything for this individual- they did what they could to make it work, they’ve always put others needs before their own— it’s just within them. 

Back in April of 2021, Greg got the initial diagnosis, Stage 3 Colo-rectal cancer. It wasn’t the news anyone was expecting. Especially at 40 years old. In fact, he’s still one of the youngest patients that his doctors have on their caseload to this day, so it was a shock to everyone. Things moved quick, doctors were initially beyond optimistic— July he started radiation and then chemo followed after. In June he had a port placed, and continued rounds of chemo. His first major surgery came at the end of January of 2022 — tumor removal and an osteomy bag was temporarily placed after removing a good portion of his intestines/colon. It was around this time Greg was no longer able to work due to all the changing medical needs and appointments. After the removal of colon/intestines and the bag being placed, things stayed steady for a bit with chemo and immunotherapy for about a 4-6 month period. That’s when things got rocky and escalated quickly, and honestly haven’t stopped escalating since. 

A PET scan showed that the cancer had metastasized to his liver— news no one wanted to hear. We had known the road up to this point had been shaky, but my parents were in no way prepared for the mound of things to happen following this diagnosis. They started him on another form of chemo to target the liver specifically, he went through multiple surgeries, more immunotherapy, more chemo. 

In May of 2023, Greg lost one of his supports—one of the anchors in his journey. His father, Dennis, passed away unexpectedly while away on a trip. That was devastating for us all, but especially for Greg as it was not only his father, but one of his long distance supports throughout the cancer journey. Someone who knew what he was going through, because he battled cancer also. This took a big toll on his mental health, but visiting his family for the memorial was some of the best days he had up to that point throughout this journey also. They also unexpectedly lost one of their fur babies shortly after also, leaving Greg devastated again. 

Jump ahead to September of 2023 and he was back to the chemo pump, between then and October of 2023 he was back to doing weekly appointments, had multiple surgeries, battled Covid multiple times, all while still grieving. 

Fast forward to March 19, 2024 and Greg would be going under for yet another surgery, this time for his first liver surgery. They removed multiple tumors and unfortunately had to take a decent portion of the liver. They were hopeful that it would rejuvenate itself, but had also talked that if things went well with chemo and after surgery, he might be a candidate for a live liver donor transplant. They were hopeful with the removal of all the growths and all the continued chemo, that he would be a good candidate. Chemo continued and things seemed to be leveling out at a manageable point. Unfortunately things don’t work out how we can imagine and expect them too. Not even a year later, March 9, 2025, Greg had to undergo another liver surgery. This left him with not much of his liver left due to the amount of tumors being removed/zapped to try to stop the spread. But overall- the team tried to remain optimistic about it all. 

They’ve tried multiple forms of chemo, multiple rounds of radiation, and unfortunately, the cancer is mutating and progressing at such a rate that they’ve not seen before. It stopped responding to treatment and it’s lead to the progression of the cancer to now, as of February 2026– that it’s now in his bones and bone marrow. In March he started radiation again to target tumors on his lower spinal cord, in April he started a new chemo, but numbers still keep climbing. Pain levels keep rising, cancer marker numbers keep climbing and unfortunately his strength has been at a point where it’s declining now. Greg just had a surgery before the holiday weekend, and it was initially to be an 8 hour surgery to remove tumors and stabilize his back and remove fractured vertebrae— but plans changed yet again. Greg’s liver isn’t functioning at a level where they felt comfortable operating for such a long procedure, so they opted to remove a fractured vertebrae and insert stabilization. Not what we expected, but we have to keep him safe! 

Ultimately— this isn’t the outcome we expected, and we never wanted or expected to be here, but life is full of ever changing outcomes, and all the curveballs. With the permission of my parents- we’re asking for help. Between countless appointments, blood draws, check ups, scares, surgeries, changing insurances and the issues that come with that, and ever changing health needs, they need assistance. There’s nothing more that Greg wants right now to be healthy, obviously, but to be able to travel to see his family and friends out of state who he may otherwise, not get to see if he doesn’t go soon. The doctors have basically said if he doesn’t respond to this new form of chemo at the lower dose his liver can tolerate, that there’s nothing left they can try really. This new chemo has shown good results, but this cancer is so aggressive and mutated so much, that they don’t know what to expect with his case really, especially with the fragile state his liver is in. 

And god forbid anything happens suddenly, Greg doesn’t have life insurance to help with the costs of anything, and they’ve already exhausted most options when it comes to financial assistance. 

But this fund is to help him get to the family he wants to see, to hopefully see the ocean again (our favorite family memories have been made at the ocean… Lilian’s first beach trip, countless family memories, the two of them FINALLY tying the knot on our last vacation to Avon in 2021) and to make some happy memories during this journey. And ultimately, help with his end of life care, so there’s less worrying when that time comes. It’s been a long road for him, for us all, but his spirit continues to shine through no matter what hurdles we have to take along the way— the loss of Dennis, moves, losing members of our aging fur family, the ups and downs of this whole journey overall…. But ultimately— we want a chance for more smiles and to more happy memories while we still have the chance to make them, and while he’s healthy enough to do so. 

We also want to take this time to say thank you to everyone who was kind enough to send him things from his recent decision to make an amazon wishlist, the outpouring of support was truly felt! He really was truly blown away. To everyone who helped previously with my bake sales, thank you! Everyone’s support hasn’t gone unnoticed. 

If you can’t help financially, we totally understand, please keep sending the prayers, the good vibes, all the things— keep sending them his way, he needs the uplifting thoughts also. Thank you all, if you’ve read this far, we truly appreciate everyone and everything up to this point on this journey. 

Thank you, 

Kandice Blazer