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Gabe Stewart  Gabe Stewart In Memory of Gabe Stewart Gabe Stewart In April of 2010 I was a 36 year old husband of 12 years, father of 2 (a four year old boy and 6 year old girl) and an unknowing victim of a brain tumor. My symptoms started simply enough with a little numbness in my left hand. This was my only symptom for approximately 3 weeks, till I started getting headaches for the first time in my life. A week later I heard the last statement that I ever expected to hear, "You have a 5cm tumor on your brain...where do you want to go for surgery?" I opted to go to St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV where I had a good surgery and nearly total resection. The pathology report came back that the tumor was a GBM (glioblastoma multiform) grade 4; the worst diagnosis that I could receive. I was told that it was unlikely that I would be alive for a year. I along with my wife decided that our best course of action would be to go to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke for treatment. This treatment consisted of chemotherapy, radiation, and a tumor starving drug that I could not receive locally as it is not part of "standard care." When I got to Duke, attitudes changed and there was nothing but "hope" given to me that we would prevail. On the day before my 2 year anniversary an MRI showed some regrowth of the tumor. I have been back on treatments since May and am already showing a reduction in size of the tumor. I am an extremely fortunate person to have been able to receive treatment at Duke University's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. They have worked hand in hand with my local oncologist at HIMG in Huntington, WV. As a result of my condition and experiences at Duke, I have become involved with Angels Among Us (www.angelsamongus.org); which is a 100% volunteer organization for the Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. The past two years their contributions have exceeded 3.6 million dollars directly for brain tumor research at Duke. I have personally seen benefits from this research at Duke. It has become one of my goals to raise money for this charity. I am confident that the research that is taking place at Duke will lead to more and more success stories like mine. Gabe passed away 8/22/18 |
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