By Nancy Eshelman
Asking for help can be tough. When you're someone like Michael Alvarado who has no experience asking, it's painful.
Mike, of Enola, left his childhood home in Oberlin at 17 and spent years working for steel companies.
"I try to do everything myself. I've been that way my whole life," he said.
But in March, severe pain sent the 54-year-old to the hospital where he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. Suddenly he found himself battling to withstand chemotherapy and radiation.
It hit him hard, Mike said. He was sick and weak, and he lost 65 pounds. Then the nerve damage hit. "I haven't felt the bottom of my feet since April," he said.
The pain and the numbness required him to give up driving. He forced himself to ask friends and family for help. Debt loomed over him because he could no longer work and disability turned down his request for help.
Then he connected with Vickie's Angels. The organization paid his rent and car insurance, he said. It provided gift cards he could use for food at Giant and to pay for rides.
"If it wasn't for Vickie's Angels, I'd be out on the street," he said.
More than 20 years ago, Mike lost a lung to a blood clot. Now he's shuffling around on a cane, trying to keep his balance on feet he can't feel. Despite his pain meds, he wakes up at night wracked with pain in his feet and legs. He spends his time playing games online and tinkering, he said. When he feels strong enough, he likes to head to his basement and tinker with a couple of mini-bikes he keeps there.
Although he lives alone, Mike has a sister who cooks for him at times, and a daughter and granddaughter who come by to help. His voice fills with love when he talks about the granddaughter, who is 16, and her brothers, who are 6 and 4. The boys have always called him "Hoppy," he said, but the name seems more appropriate now as he makes his way with his cane.
Now that he's finished his treatment, Mike is waiting to find out how well it worked and whether surgery looms in his future.
"I'm fighting for my life now," he said. "I've got to try to beat this stuff. I want to see my grandchildren grow up."