It was brought to our attention via social media that Go Radio drummer Steve Kopacz has been diagnosed with aggressive stage 3 cancer. Below are some pieces from the GoFundMe page which was started by fellow Go Radio bandmate, bass, Matt Burns Poulos. So far, the page has reached $7,255 of the $15,000 goal at press time. We hope that number is way off and higher when you read this.
You can go to the site HERE and donate to the cause. If anyone reading this, which is probably at least 99.9% of you, have had experience with cancer in family or friends, you know the hell this can be. If you have the money to donate please do, or share the page or this to encourage others to as well.
Timeline Of Events:
November 6. He texted me the day he found out the particularly problematic ulcer wasn’t healing correctly. It wasn’t healing because the ulcer had cancer in it. He was going to have surgery to remove part of his middle stomach. This is very common, just not in someone Steve’s age. 33. Scary problem, easy fix. This would be the first of many times that we would hear the phrase “extremely uncommon in someone your age.”
November 9. Surgery day. Procedure was to start at 1pm. I wished him the best, hoped for even better and waited to hear everything went well. At 6pm I got a text, “Surgery took longer than expected… they ended up taking out his entire stomach.” What? Is that even a thing? Can someone live without a stomach? What could they have possibly found that would make them think it was a good idea to remove his entire stomach? It wasn’t until the next day that we found out the answer: cancer. Lots of cancer. We cried.
They removed his entire stomach and twenty-seven lymph nodes and sent it all off to a lab. The doctors told him they sent it off to see if they “got it all.” My immediate response was how can they see if they “got it ALL” by looking at what is out of his body already? Probably not the most helpful.
November 16. A week after surgery and we were anxiously (nervously) waiting to hear back about the results. Results came back: Not good. He has aggressive, invasive stage 3 gastric adenocarcinoma. His entire stomach was engulfed in it. Thirteen of the lymph nodes had it. When receiving the news, ever-optimistic Steve was taking it all with the positivity only Steve could. The doctor said to Steve “I don’t think you understand how serious this is.” Whoa. Ouch. Okay. So we’re doomed?
That escalated quickly.
It was just an ulcer. Then the ulcer had cancer. Then it was stomach cancer. Then it was cancer also in his lymph nodes. Then it was stage 3 gastric adenocarcinoma: extremely uncommon in someone his age. All in a matter of a 10 days.
December 21. Steve started chemotherapy.
We have Steven in our thoughts and prayers as we hope to see a strong recovery. You can check out some of the music he was a part of during the time Go Radio was a band.
