Francisco Bernabe at the young age of 57 has been diagnosed with Prostate cancer and a very rare form of Sarcoma Cancer. Frank is a family man. He is a husband to his wife Nancy of 35 years, a father to 3, and Papa Bear (Grampa) to Lilly, Brysun and Joseph. He is the only father figure his first grandchild has ever known, hence where PAPA comes from. Frank has been a hardworking man his whole life. Providing for his family has been his pride and joy. Before the diagnoses you could find Frank traveling with his wife to watch his son play baseball, his grandchildren at softball games and football games, practicing outdoors with them and figuring out ways to fix anything broken. He has been a truck driver for the majority of his life. Unfortunately, in September 2022 that all changed. After suffering from some extreme bladder pain that came on quickly during the weekend, we took him to the Emergency room. After a few hours he was transferred to another hospital where he underwent surgery and a 15- pound tumor was removed. The tumor was located in between his prostate, rectum and colon. The operating Dr, never having seen a tumor of that size or the intricate location of it, went ahead and removed it all including the organs near the tumor and around it to make sure all of the cancer was taken out. Frank will have to live with an Urostomy and colostomy bag for the remainder of his life. He will also need specific high grade medical equipment for at home care. These needs are only covered by insurance to an extent. We have been traveling back and forth to a Mayo Clinic a few hours away to see a Sarcoma Specialist to ensure that he remains in remission. As a family we have chosen to be very private about this matter. Our concerns have been for his emotional healing, processing and adjusting to this NEW WAY of life. Asking for help has never come easy to him, however we humbly now realize we can’t do this alone. Frank’s family needs him. His wife, kids and grandchildren need him. He can no longer go on the road for 12 plus hours at a time or work. He needs rest, he needs to heal, he needs hope that during this new season we can focus primarily on his health and not focus on the financial hardship of how we are going to get by this upcoming year with Treatment, Medical expenses and cost of life in general due to his recent unemployment. We believe that God has a plan, and as a family we want to give back to him everything he has ever done for all of us. All the overnights driving his truck, the weeks we went without seeing him because he was on the road working to provide, we want to take care of him the way he took care of us and be in the position to do so in any way possible. Please prayerfully consider helping us during this time. Anything donated will help. Thank you.
