The TNT Post

In 2003, my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  At the same time, I was just transitioning out of the University of Georgia and into seminary as I had strongly felt the Lord calling me to be a priest.

     As I went up to Franciscan University of Steubenville and later to Rome, Italy, dad went into round after round after round of chemo, radiation, and biopsies.  Ports were put in, lumps were taken out, chemicals flooded his body, he lost his hair and his appetite.  Being so far away from home was particularly hard.  Mom would call and give me updates, and over the breaks from school I'd get to come home and try my best to love my dad back into health and, as my seminary experience progressed, even got to begin to minister our Lord's grace through prayer and the Sacraments of the Church.  Even with Faith, it's hard to see your dad suffer and, as I would find out, how hard the trial is on the whole family.

     There were a few things that kept my dad going.  He always first credits the Lord especially through the inspiration of Pope St. John Paul II who showed the world how to suffer with dignity and Mary, Jesus' mom, who takes all her Son's disciples as her own and loves them from Heaven.  In a very close second, he always thanks his wife, my mom, for being absolutely everything for him in his sickness and treatment; she was the mediator between doctor and patient, she was the chauffeur, she was the primary attending nurse, she was the nutritionist, she was the emotional support, she offered all of her strength--physical, spiritual, mental--to ensure that dad made it through.  Then there was my brother who literally shed his blood that our dad might have life...he donated some of his bone marrow to transplant into our dad, a procedure that seems to have the cancer in remission for the foreseeable future.

     

     When he found out about TNT and the rides they do to raise funds for cancer treatment and research, it gave my dad yet another reason to fight, something to do and a mission to fight for during those long years of treatment.  Despite his severely compromised immune system, he was on a stationary bike spinning it out even before he was cleared to be around crowds.  He told me how he did it not so much for himself, but for the people sitting in those lazy-boy recliners holding on to a hope that their chemical drip therapy would kill their cancer.  He told me how he had in mind his father-in-law, his brother, and a seemingly countless number of family members, coworkers, and friends who have been stricken with cancers of all types.  He offered the pain of the training for their health and comfort...that the cross he took on voluntarily through TNT might become a means of support for those on whom the heavy cross of cancer was placed involuntarily.

     So he started training.

     He made new friends, got in great shape, and, over the past 12 years, has raised thousands of dollars for leukemia and lymphoma research.  Each summer since his diagnoses, he has done a 100-mile ride with Team in Training, building a community of family, friends, and benefactors to help kick cancer in the face.  He has been and is a source of such inspiration in our family, and I feel the call to join him in this year's event, to become part of the Team in Training.

     Friends, in honesty, I have a long way to go.  I'm overweight and I haven't taken good care of my body since getting out college.  But I know that with the same means of support my dad has, I can do this.  Faith, family, purpose.  It's going to hurt, it's going to be very uncomfortable, and it's going to require some significant changes to my lifestyle, yet I firmly believe that with the Lord all things are possible.

     Will you help me on this epic journey?  Will you help me to raise funds to get treatments out to those who need them?  Will you say a quick prayer for the perseverance of those who, even at this moment, are being pricked and prodded, ported and dosed, especially those who are loosing hope?  Cancer is a battle no one should have to fight on his or her own.  Let's do this as a Team.

     Thank you!

Fr. Michael Silloway