June 2019

In June 2019, Blake went to the doctor routinely for stomach pains that began when we were leaving the beach a few days earlier. After his doctor began examining him and discussing his symptoms, he decided to run a few tests to get a better idea of what was going on. The doctor decided to have Blake come back the next day for an ultrasound which led to a CT scan. The following day Blake was informed that they had found several masses in his abdomen including his liver, and spleen and would be referring him to have a biopsy. The radiologist we saw told us they were now looking at “what this was, so we could better determine a treatment plan”. This was not the news we wanted to hear because it sounded to us that they already knew we were dealing with some type of cancer. Five samples of tissue were taken from one of the tumors in Blake’s abdomen and that’s when the longest wait of our lives thus far began...

When we met with Blake’s primary doctor a few days later, we were told the news that would change our lives at this current moment and put us on a path we never considered taking because Blake was a completely healthy 30-year-old, right?! “It is cancer”, those words will never fade from our minds. Of course, there were what felt like a million questions running through Blake’s, myself, and his mom and dad’s head and all we wanted were answers. Unfortunately, we would have to wait another week for those answers.

July 2019

Blake was initially diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, but upon receiving more test results we were told that he in fact has DSRCT, an even more rare form of sarcoma cancer. With this information and after consulting further with Blake’s local oncologist, we decided our best option was to head to MD Anderson in Houston to meet with a DSRCT specialist. In mid-July 2019, we moved to Houston for Blake to begin his first round of treatment.

June 2021

Here we are in 2021 and Blake is on his 4th different chemo regimen and fighting harder than ever. We are working hard to be part of the solution for DSRCT and would love to grow our army even more with those who want to join this fight with us. Our hope for this foundation is to help find a cure for those families who are currently affected by DSRCT and those who may find themselves fighting alongside us in the future.

October 2022