A Marine Family in Need! Please Help!

These people sacrifice so much for the rest of us to live in peace. Please help as much as you can!

From Fix 4 RSO:

I have been contacted by one of The Soldiers’ Angels representatives and the call is going out for everyone to help. At this time please understand that no names are to be provided in this post to provide a high degree of safety for the family as their situation is very personal. Also, there are so many bad people out there that would just love to send scum-like cards, and this family just does not need that right now (you remember those cards, don’t you?).

Our Marine family is stationed in Twenty-Nine Palms, CA. They have one son who is 11 years old and one daughter who is 7 years old. They are in desperate need of our prayers, gifts, cards of encouragement, donations, or just more support from the Milblogosphere! Their son was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The reason that donations of money or maybe clothes is important is because for the past three weeks the Dad, our Marine in Need, has been paying for everything out of his own pocket. It just so happens that the government doesn’t move as fast as a family, or the situation, may require - if you’ve served or are serving now, you know this to be true. And, you may also know that all our brave men and women don’t get paid very much, so this hardship is even more acute.

Please take a moment and read the family’s story:

[Marine in Need] is an active duty Marine Staff Sergeant assigned to the 3rd LAR Battalion, Delta Company. He was deployed to Iraq on March 6, 2006 and was out in the Fallujah area. On or about the 1st week of May he was notified by a message from the Red Cross that his son was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. As hard as it was for him to accept this information, he had to make the toughest decision any Marine must make: to leave his fellow Marines to carry on without him. He returned to the United States to be at his son’s side, and supporting his wife, for the ongoing process of undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Our [Marine in Need’s] son was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on May 3, 2006 while he was in Iraq. His son had a mass on the right side of his neck that was noticed in November of 2005, and after a biopsy it was found that he had cancer. On May 4, 2006 they had an appointment with a Pediatric Oncologist and that is when their entire situation changed.

Our [Marine in Need’s] son is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the San Diego area at a military hospital. The hospital is about three hours (if traffic is good) from Twenty-Nine Palms where they are currently stationed. The doctor will not allow our [Marine in Need’s] son to travel to Twenty-Nine Palms throughout the length of chemotherapy, which is about six months. The doctor told them that the hospital at Twenty-Nine palms does not have adequate facilities if their son was to get sick. Chemotherapy wipes out one’s immune system; therefore any infection can be fatal.

The need for the this family is immediate. The last three weeks our [Marine in Need] has been paying everything out of his pocket. They have sent their 7 year old daughter to stay with family in Texas so that the Mom and Dad can focus on their son’s health. As far as any of us know, this family is all alone in California - except the biggest family in the world, the United States Marine Corps! Corps takes good care of Corps - but we need to help too! The family needs items like gas cards, gift cards (food), cash donations, cards of encouragement for the family, or drawings from your kids to give to their kids.

Contact me via comments in this post (or my e-mail if ya have it). I’ll provide updates as I receive them.

We really need to get this family some help and some good feelings .

We just crossed the Memorial Day line, and we now need to help those in need who are always there ready to help us.

And, spread the word! We need the entire Milblogosphere to get the word out so this family can have a little peace in this very trying time.

TAGS: Fix4RSO, Milblog, Military, USMC, Help, Soldiers+Angels