Imagine being 59 years old, active and fit, an avid tennis player and swimmer, quite proud of your abilities. Then imagine being on a tennis court one day, and you experience a lack of coordination and crash into the tennis net pole. You laugh it off as momentary clumsiness and think nothing of it. Two days later you’re with a friend at lunch and you stumble. You stumble badly enough that your friend is concerned and tells you to go see a doctor and you blow it off and drive yourself home. On the drive, you don’t feel right. You have numbness in your leg and your arm, and you’re scared so you take yourself to the hospital. After a mere three days, they’ve diagnosed you with the brain tumor. And suddenly the body you have worked to maintain is betraying you in the most diabolical manner. Your world comes crashing down. That’s what happened to our friend Luke. Luke Salerno is one of the greatest men we know, one of the greatest friends to have, and a person we can’t imagine living without. Luke has a brain tumor, and in a matter of 5 week’s time, he has lost his ability to walk unassisted, lost most of the abilities of his right arm, and has been told that only expensive oncology treatments involving radiation and chemotherapy are his only chance. Luke‘s tumor is inoperable and it’s growing. As of right now, we can still converse and talk and laugh and share memories and he still beats everyone at chess, but he’s getting worse daily. He loses more and more of himself every time he wakes up. He’s scared and all of us are scared. They want to start on November 25, but Luke needs $43,000. That’s only a little over a week away. Luke just got accepted for these treatments after battling with hospitals and doctors and his time is running out. If we had the money, we would give it to him in the blink of an eye, but we don’t. Luke asked us to put this together for him, to try and raise money to save his life, because his situation is inhibiting him from getting the money on his own. He has a lot of friends, but $43,000 is a big amount in a very short period of time. So we’re asking for your help. Luke Salerno is a treasure not just to his friends but also to his lovely elderly horse Smiley who also needs him, they both deserves that chance. He’s the oldest living horse in the world at age 43 and has been a companion of Luke’s for over 30 years. So if you see this, please please donate what you can and spread the word because we need all hands on deck. And if you know people who may not know Luke but believe that everyone deserves good medical care and a chance to fight their illness then share this link to your social media and post where you can. Dr. Tresa McGranahan, neuro oncologist, and Dr. Chien Chen, oncologist, are waiting to treat Luke at Scripps. Luke will post his progress as he goes through this 4-6 weeks of treatment. If this fundraiser is successful, he will post himself presenting the $43,000 to Scripps on the 25th of this month when he begins his healing journey. Thank you is not nearly enough, but it’s all we can say for your grace and your generosity in helping my friend. We pray for our friend every day, and love Luke very much. Thank you again for donating and sharing!