LINK TO BREAST CANCER FUNDRAISING PAGE:
https://give.bcrf.org/tailgatejoe
10/2022 All donations given this month up to $1000 will be matched by TailgateJoe!
More Than Just Beer, Booze, and Burgers…
Obviously the aim of this site is to keep it light, loose, and fun, like my tailgate parties and my ex-girlfriends. But on the other hand, when you have the ability to reach people, even a small amount of people like this site does (although we are working as hard as possible to make TGJ a household name!), then you have the ability to use that voice for some good. Some people may think all of these sites and all the social networking stuff I do is just an attention grab, and maybe to some degree it is, but at the end of the day I have some things that are important to me and I want to be one of those people with a voice loud enough to grab some attention to talk about it.
In the fall of 1995 I was diagnosed with stage 3B Hodgkins Lymphoma. I was sick for well over a year when I realized and was diagnosed, and was told I was a mere few weeks at the most had I not discovered this. I spent the next year being treated with chemotherapy and radiation by the miracle workers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
UPDATE 2018
Well, as if one cancer wasn’t enough, in April of 2018 I was diagnosed with Male Breast Cancer. This was a bit of a shock, and to this day it puts a smirk on my face when I say I had breast cancer and I had a double mastectomy, but it is what it is.
I don’t want to bog down this page with my experience, I might write more about it on this site or elsewhere at some point, but it was an experience of a lifetime, and while undergoing treatment in the pediatric ward I saw two vastly different sides of humanity. The first and obvious was the absolute 
trauma and despair cancer brings, the absolute blindness to pain and suffering and willful disregard for human suffering brought onto both patients and loved ones. I sat there not depressed, but angry, angry for kids who hadn’t gotten the chance to live the 18 years I had at the time, angry that the only life a lot of these kids knew was centered around trips to the IV station, nausea, operations, and sad parents. But the other side that you see when you peel back a layer of the onion, especially as a patient, is the absolute best in humanity. From the doctor who has dedicated thousands of hours to fighting the losing battles, to the guy who works at the front desk and puts his own problems to the side to great every patient with a smile that makes you feel like everything is going to be ok, there are countless miracle workers trying with all of their god given skill and talent to fight and make a difference so that in the future we can say that nobody will ever suffer or die of cancer again. It is these selfless miracle workers who allow people like me to go on living my life, and it is these people I owe a huge debt to for the rest of my life.
Having said all that, I can really use your help in giving these people the tools they need to continue the fight, so please take a moment and look below and get involved, together we can all make a huge difference.
Thanks,
Joe
CURRENT CHARITIES We SUPPORT:
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Coming this summer 2019, we will have direct links to donate to these charities in the name of TailgateJoe!
