Marc Garside, loving father of 8-year old Willow, devoted husband of Skye and active member of Montessori East school community is facing the biggest challenge of his life and needs your help.
Last month Marc received the shocking news that, after almost 6 years in remission, cancer has returned to his body. The advanced oesophageal cancer that was believed to have been completely eradicated in 2009 had microscopically metastasised (spread) and lodged in his pancreas and chest. He now has two tumours that the doctors are unable to remove and palliative chemotherapy has begun to try to prevent further spread.
The outlook is very uncertain as there is no known cure for stage IV metastatic oesophageal cancer and doctors have suggested that he may have as little as a year, and possibly up to 4 or 5 years of life ahead.
Having beat seriously grave odds in the past (rarely more than 10% of people with advanced oesophageal cancer live to see the 5 year milestone that Marc celebrated last year), Marc is determined to rise to this challenge and to live a long and happy life.
His goal is to see his beautiful daughter grow into a young woman before she has to say goodbye to her daddy.
He needs your help to realise this goal.
In order to fully pursue the world’s best, life-saving treatments and to cultivate the most vital lifestyle, we need financial support. We are a proud and determined family and have previously not asked for help, choosing instead to use our life-savings, sell our home and our business to get Marc to this point.
Unfortunately we have used all of our personal resources and must now reach out to our community for support.
Your donation will help us to:
This is the biggest challenge of our life and we are determined to face it with all the courage we can muster. Part of Marc’s healing journey will be in recovering a sense of purpose. Since his last cancer Marc has suffered depression and a loss of joy. He needs a new dream. Marc’s Quest for Life will be to rediscover what gives his life purpose and meaning. In a step toward this end, Marc would like to use his challenge as a platform for raising awareness of an organisation that has helped us and so many others to find peace and make sense of life’s challenges.
Quest for Life Foundation provides retreats and community based workshops that encourage, educate and empower people with the tools to create emotional resilience and peace of mind. They rely on government grants and donations to provide support to people from all walks of life, regardless of their financial situation.