Jacob Gasper

In July of 2016, Jake spent the afternoon playing with his kids in the pool.  Later that evening he noticed a large lump on this right shoulder/back. Initially, doctors told him it was a strained muscle and a little ice and R&R should do the trick.

When the swelling didn’t improve his doctors ordered an MRI and eventually a surgical biopsy. The biopsy confirmed Sarcoma -- Pleomorphic Undifferentiated Sarcoma. That fall, Jake went through four rounds of chemo and five weeks of radiation. Then, on December 30, 2016, he had surgery to remove the football sized tumor from his right chest wall. Because of the massive tumor size, a plastic surgeon removed skin and muscle from his right thigh to repair the area on this back. It was a long and slow recovery.  

Just when he thought cancer was behind him, a routine scan showed a new tumor in the left upper lobe of his lungs. On November 21, 2017 Jake had surgery to remove this new tumor. Following surgery, Jake endured several more rounds of intense chemotherapy .  

Now recent scans have detected two more tumors in his lungs. Doctors are monitoring the tumors and when they grow large enough, most likely this fall, doctors will once again surgically remove them.  

Over the past two years, Jake has endured chemo, radiation, and multiple surgeries. Yet, throughout all of this, Jake has continued to work and maintain a sense of normalcy for his kids -- Aidan (12), Andy (10), Amelia (7), and James (2).   

We will use this site to keep you all posted on changes as they come.