Marco is a fine dining chef in Wyoming. His 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, at just 7-months-old. She immediately started chemotherapy. The family lives in Northwest Wyoming and travels ten hours by car to Denver, Colorado every 4-months to have a laser procedure with the objective to shrink the tumor. The doctors say that the tumor will continue to grow but laser treatments every few months help to slow the growth. Early chemotherapy treatment caused permanent hearing loss and she now requires a hearing aid.
His family had trouble to cover their bills due to loss of work and the increased medical expenses. To provide for his family Marco has taken out multiple loans and credit cards. CORE supported the family with a grant that included one month of rent and a CORE VISA gift card to cover utilities and travel expenses for his daughters’ medical treatments.