Mandi Perkins On Brother’s Battle With Brain Cancer
Mandi Perkins checked in with fans on her blog at MySpace (@ofverona) on Tuesday (November 10), opening up about her brother’s battle with brain cancer. The Canadian singer songwriter tells readers:
On July 16th of 2008, my brother was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and it completely changed everything. I won’t list the symptoms here because if you’re anything like me, you’ll read the list and might think you have one yourself ? But to make a long story short, he had a biopsy and the doctors discovered it was stage 3. After we learned of the diagnosis, I named the tumor Tommi (sorry if that’s your name!) and we aggressively pursued options as to how we could make sure my brother would be ok. He began chemo to try & kill the cancerous cells & every day for 6 weeks in early winter, we went to Cedars Sinai to run through the horrific task of radiation.
It’s been almost a year since his treatment began and my brother has never once complained. Not when he gained a bunch of weight from the steroids, not when he got nauseas and lost all the weight after chemo, not even when he was too tired to move. He also had to give up all his favorite foods and if my sister-in-law wasn’t such a great cook, I’m not sure what he would have eaten. But yet, he still never bitched about any of it. I’m not just saying this because he’s my brother, but the guy is ridiculous in his serenity. He amazes everyone around him with his unshakable spirit.
