In December of 2005 my wife Linda Hughes was diagnosed with breast cancer. Throughout surgery, chemo therapy and radiation she remained cancer-free for eleven years. Linda and I thought cancer was behind her. We thought the "C word" terror years were over and gone. They were not. In September of 2016 Linda was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Cancer snuck up on her almost overnight and invaded her liver and the pleural linings of her lungs. It all came on in what seemed like an instant.

She was originally at the time of diagnosis given four months to live. We were devastated. But Linda never showed anything but positive hope and attitude throughout it all. Through a series treatments that slowed cancer growth, along with her will to fight on, Linda lived a year and a half past her diagnosis. Linda was up and around, able to travel, throw and attend parties, enjoy life with friends and family. She led a strong, good and fruitful life. But in the end it caught up with her. Cancer took her lungs. And when it did it was an exponential and aggressive attack.

Linda never lost her sense of humor, her smile, her strong and comforting faith in God.

We both knew where it was all headed and given that sad fact Linda never lost her sense of humor, her smile, her strong and comforting faith in God. Linda was taken home way too early at 54 years of age on March 15, 2018. In the final days her suffering was at a minimum compared to many enduring the ravages of cancer. In the period between 2005 and 2018 Linda and I turned over every rock in both Western and so-called alternative medicine. We dug in and did the research. And we both came to the conclusion that wishful thinking miracle cure ‘alternatives’ were just that—wishful thinking, and in some cases, fraudulent. And the very best Western medicine has to offer is not a cure either. At best it’s a stop gap.

Chemo therapy is a temporary hold that can be placed on cancer's progression. And in Linda’s case she was allergic to all of it. Only through a custom designed protocol of infusion over a nine hour period was she able to take a treatment that would have been delivered to other cancer patients in a couple of hours at most. It was hell for her.

Linda lived and radiated her deep Christian faith every waking moment of her life.

Through it all she shined with hope and cheer, and it was never false bravado. Linda lived and radiated her deep Christian faith every waking moment of her life. She was one of the favorite patients of the staff at the infusion center. And when we became aware of immune-therapy, it seemed that Linda might have a way out - a cure that would set her free from cancer. It was not to be.

All the immune-therapies we checked into, as was the case with all clinical trials we were told, were not for the cancer type that afflicted Linda. But given what cancer actually is, immune-therapy treatment offered the most hope for a real cure. But at that time it was all specific to certain types of cancer. Being in its nascent stages it was not to be for my wife.

Much more research needs to be done but the trail is being blazed.

Cancer happens at a molecular level. It’s DNA information gone wrong, horribly wrong. An atom in a string of DNA decides to go missing on a carbon chain due to genetics or external cellular damage and suddenly a string in DNA that tells hair and fingernails to keep growing starts telling breast cells to keep growing. That is what you’re up against when you try to ‘cure’ cancer. That is the reality of it. No diet of beets and kale, visits to a cancer spas in foreign countries, or wonder drugs are going to alter that. In the end it is the human body, using its own immune system, that will kill cancer by recognizing it and destroying it internally. And that is starting to happen.

Cancer happens at a molecular level.

Much more research needs to be done but the trail is being blazed. And the more research and development done to make immune system therapy a reality for all types of cancer--the faster this will put an end to cancer. The sooner the better!

With that in mind, I’ve set up this website to not only honor and celebrate the life of my wife Linda Hughes, it is also to ask for generous donations to the most effective organization to ever collect and distribute grants to those on the front lines in the war on cancer, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) is the best hope for continued research and development in the fight to kill cancer once and for all.

When you give generously to BCRF your donation goes to killing cancer--not managerial and bureaucratic overhead.

BCRF was started by Evelyn Lauder of the Estee Lauder family in 1993, herself a victim of breast cancer. You can see Evelyn’s story and the story of the wonderful work she did and continues to do at her BCRF website. BCRF continues to this day to be the most important and beneficial distribution to cancer research funding to be found. Meet the researchers on the front lines. You can learn more about the integrity of BCRF’s charity ratings and more about the foundation in general on their financials page. When you give generously to BCRF your donation goes to killing cancer--not managerial and bureaucratic overhead.

I can’t think of a better way to honor my wife than to kill cancer.

I’ve taken steps to collapse all that I possess, upon my passing, into an endowment to the BCRF. The endowment will be named and known as ‘The Linda Hughes Endowment, Rise Up!’ I can’t think of a better way to honor my wife than to kill cancer. And I can’t think of a better way to kill cancer than to get legitimate funding to legitimate research and development, to get the necessary resources to the medical professionals on the front lines of this war. It is with that single driving thought in mind that I ask you to donate generously in the name and memory of my loving wife Linda Hughes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation - Let’s all join in the fight to end cancer!.

Thank you!