In less than two months, LT Robert "Bob" DeSaye was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder/partial kidney failure and then cancer. His cancer is unfortunately one of the rarest, aggressive, and treatment resistant cancers known, Stage 4 poorly differentiated neuroendocrine cancer. His autoimmune disorder has limited his already poor treatment options even further and makes his prognosis bleak, months to no more than 2 years at best. He started his first round of 4 days of Chemotherapy on May 16th and will go back in a few weeks for another 4 days at which point they will assess progress. To say his life has been turned upside down would be an understatement.
LT DeSaye has served the community through multiple police agencies through almost 25 years, over 20 years of which has been with the Town of Newburgh Police Department. Most of his adult life has been dedicated to protecting and serving the community and now he is the one who could use some help.
He is working rapidly to get his estate in order and do the most he can to provide for his family, his wife, daughter and son. He is being forced by this illness into an early retirement, which will reduce his income by half and his wife is taking time off of work as well, which will likely become unpaid time off as his battle continues. Add to this, the co-pays, travel costs and everything else that comes with this battle.
Please donate what you can so that Bob and his family do not have to worry about money for the next couple months and they can focus on fighting the disease and spending time together. I will provide updates as I get them. Please keep Bob and his family in your prayers as well.
Updates
It is with great sadness that I provide this update. Bob passed away earlier this week at his home. I would like to say again that there are no words to adequately express the gratitude that Bob had for the financial support and kind works provided by everyone here. As news of his diagnosis spread, he was completely humbled by the volume of communications he received from family and friends. He was also in awe of the fact that so many people shared with him the ways in which he had positively impacted their life. He mentioned it to me several times. Let us all try and positively impact more peoples lives in memory of Bob and please keep his family in your prayers.
On behalf of Bob and his family, I wanted to provide another update. There have been highs and lows with his treatment. His next PET scan got pushed until next month because his doctors decided they wanted him to have three treatments before the scan, so he won't know exactly how the treatments are going until then. He is currently receiving his third round of Chemo. It's been a tough month, there have been rough patches every week or two. He was told twice that he might not make it much longer but thankfully he has been pulling through. Last week, he was barely able to eat or drink for almost 6 days and almost had to be hospitalized. The best news is that his kidneys have stabilized and are functioning well enough that he is able to stop his kidney medicine as of today. With regard to work, he is officially retired from the Town of Newburgh Police Department as of the 18th of June. For those who don't know, he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Chief just prior to his retirement and although it does not affect his retirement income, the significance of the promotion was priceless to him and his family and he cannot thank the Town of Newburgh Town Board enough. Financially he is incredibly thankful for the generous support provided by all your donations, he has needed the money more than he envisioned. He has not gotten a paycheck for a few weeks and is hoping that he gets his first retirement check in a month or two. He did apply for SSDI but that is usually a long process, and his wife, who is his primary care giver, is still using FMLA time, so the money from your donations is and will be critical to Bob and his family. Thanks again and please keep Bob and his family in your prayers. Mark
On behalf of the DeSaye family, I want to thank everyone for their donations and kind words. Bob has taken the time to read all of the posted messages, and he does not have words to express how grateful and touched he has been. The money that has been raised by all of your contributions has brought an incredible amount of needed financial relief to the DeSaye family, again, they can not thank you all enough.
Medically, Bob finished his first round of 4 days of chemo on the 20th and he had follow up appointments this week. The chemo was received and tolerated fairly well, but unfortunately, due to the increased weakening of his immune system and the strain on his body, complications developed with the kidney disease. Severe muscle wasting and motor control issues associated with the medications from the kidney disease have forced his doctors to cut back on those medications, before his body becomes too weak to handle the next round of chemo. It is a dangerous balancing act. He risks kidney failure, but if he doesn't regain some strength, he will not be able to tolerate more than one more round of chemo. We are hoping he recovers some of his strength next week, before his next round of chemo the following week.Please keep Bob and his family in your prayers and God bless you all.
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Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Sending prayers Bob!
Prayers for my brother in blue and his family 💙
Bobby, you are in my thoughts and prayers. Fight and know you are going to do the best you can. Believe in the power of prayer and good thought. Cindy
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Praying for strength for you and your family, & searching through the Psalms for some understanding 💓💓💓