Brad’s Journey
In November of 2020, Brad and his wife Abbey took a trip out west to Utah and Arizona to get out of the house and away from work during the Covid outbreak. Towards the end of their trip, Brad developed severe abdominal pains that persisted until they returned to their home in Bloomington, Indiana. Thinking it was just constipation in the dry climate of Utah and Arizona, Brad went to his primary physician to see what they could do. He was given colonoscopy prep, and he was sent on his way.
After the colonoscopy prep was unsuccessful, Brad and Abbey became worried and immediately went to the emergency room. Brad was in “10 out of 10” pain and needed to find relief as soon as possible. When they got to the emergency room, the doctors ran some tests and found the culprit for all of Brad’s pain: Colon Cancer. After an emergency colonoscopy, Brad had to have a 7cm tumor removed from his Sigmoid Colon and was given an ostomy. They also found it spread outside the colon to the peritoneal lining, signifying stage IV Colon Cancer. All of a sudden, Brad and Abbey, at the age of 25, were in for the fight of their lives after being told he had a year to live.
During the treatment
The treatment plan that was outlined for Brad was 12 rounds of high-dosage chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Chemo made Brad extremely fatigued and he couldn’t bring himself to eat or drink for the 2 days that he was hooked up to his chemo pump. Despite the challenges, he was determined to beat the odds and outlive the dire prognosis that he had been given.
After 8 rounds of chemo, they had seen significant shrinkage in his tumors on scans. This made Brad eligible for cytroreductive surgery and HIPEC. This procedure involved opening Brad up along his original primary tumor removal scar in order to take out any visible cancer that the surgeon could locate. Once all tumors were removed, heated chemo was to be pumped into his abdomen in order to take care of any residual cancer cells that may have been left behind. After a long recovery and 3 rounds of clean up chemo, Brad was declared NED (No Evidence of Disease), where he has stayed ever since.
Fighting for the Cure
Now with the physical fighting out of the way, Brad and his family set out to raise as much money as possible in order to rid the Earth of this terrible disease once and for all, hence the creation of the Franzen Colon Cancer Research Fund. They have organized events, including charity motorcycle rides, bourbon tastings, and auctions in order to raise money for Colon Cancer research. Brad’s goal is to help as many Colon Cancer patients as possible. Since he was lucky enough to survive the disease, he wants to fight alongside those who are fighting for their lives each and every day. 100% of the proceeds from each event go straight to a Colon Cancer research center to develop new treatments in the pursuit of eradicating the disease.
