Matthew English

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


Using this website was a great way to communicate with friends, fellow co-workers and family. I hope by using this tool again, we can keep everyone updated on Matt's progress throughout the next several months.


As many of you know, Matt was diagnosed with brain cancer back in September of 2011 and had brain surgery to remove the tumor in October of 2011. After surgery we did several months of chemo therapy and 36 radiation treatments. After treatment was over, we began doing MRI's every 3 months. After about 3 1/2 years of successful scans we went to every 6 months and again, things have been going pretty successfully UNTIL recently. After the holiday season Matt had an episode of what we now know was a seizure. We called the family doctor and they chalked it up to possibly anxiety attack which could have made perfect sense as Matt's basketball season was underway and he is the Athletic Director in our school corporation. Several weeks passed by, life was going on as normal...busy basketball schedule, our little one, Addison, has started basketball and volleyball. Well about a month ago, I was at volleyball practice with Addison when I got the call that Matt was having another one of those spells. I called family doctor again and she had us go to the ER for some tests. Most of the test in the ER were heart related and all came back clear and good to go. The next day I called our brain surgeon's office to let them know what Matt had been experiencing. They got us in for MRI and long story short, here we are....there are 3 small tumors in the same area as the first. It is pretty apparent to all doctors that these tumors are causing the seizures. So we will be starting chemo tomorrow night. This will be the same treatment that we previously had in the past. Matt will do a chemo pill for 21 days out of 28 days for 3 months. We will be meeting with the radiologist in 2 weeks to determine the radiation plan. The hopes are they only do a handful of radiation treatments and not the 30 some days again...
This of course is the hardest time of the year for all of this to be happening as we are in the midst of basketball with sectionals beginning next week. 
If you know Matthew well though, you will know he will rock this like a hurricane (Is that a song??) He is the strongest, most determined man I have ever known.
So as you go about your days and your activities, please just give a little prayer or positive thought his way. He doesn't always show his emotions or want to discuss this type of stuff but I promise you, it means the world to him!


My love to all of you and I thank you now for the encouragement I know you will give him!!