“What does high risk mean?” Garth asked. His oncologist looked him in the eyes and responded… “You are going to die of this.” Garth is 44 years old and has been diagnosed with cancer three times since November 2011. Prostate cancer once. Kidney cancer twice. Although he appears healthy today, statistics say he has an 8% chance of living past 5 years.
Garth has one daughter named Emma. He has been writing napkin notes for Emma’s lunch box since she was in the second grade. They are just a few words of encouragement, but in the busyness of their separate days at work and school, it’s a moment when they can connect. It’s a moment when Garth knows she is thinking about him.
Garth may die, but he will not let Emma eat lunch without that note. This is his promise to write one napkin note for every day of class Emma has until she graduates from high school. To date, he has completed 740 notes. 86 to go.
This is a picture of Garth and Emma at a father/daughter superhero dance. They didn’t win because Jedi were “not considered superheroes.” Emma was mad and I’d be too. Jedi’s are definitely superheroes…
—
Get 10 promise cards mailed to you at no cost: https://becauseisaidiwould.org/requestcards
Garth. Please look into a Keto diet, I have seen videos of a guy with cancer that swears it prolonged his life, because it is so low carb, and he said that cancer feeds on carbs/sugar. I dont know if its true, but anything to get more time for you and your daughter would be great.http://www.reddit.com/r/keto/
Garth I’ll do you one big big favor this only happens once in a lifetime to a person.
I am sending my Guardian Angel to watch over you.
You will be very happy with him after you are through with him send him back to me please.
His name is: Saint Gerard He will never leave your side trust me.
I will pray for you, Garth!
Wow.
Shivers down my back.
Pull through Garth, everyone in my office is truly touched by your actions. It is a invaluable gift to your daughter.
Amen to that….the love of a father is never compared to anything.God be with you Garth.We’ll pray for you….pull through
Fight the good fight!!
You are an inspiration to father’s like me everywhere.
I wish you success on your notes to go and praying for your health.
You are a super hero in every sense of the term, no costume necessary! You are an amazing father. I am so touched and filled with admiration. I will pray for you and your complete recovery. It is true there are angels that walk on earth, you’re my confirmation!
God Bless You
Randee Fontanazza
January 27, 2014 6:37 pm
You are a super hero in every sense of the term, no costume necessary! You are an amazing father. I am so touched and filled with admiration. I will pray for you and your complete recovery. It is true there are angels that walk on earth, you’re my confirmation! God Bless You
Do yourself a quick favor and search Gerson Therapy!
Please look into the Gerson Diet. My mom died of cancer at 48, if I had known about Gerson when she was sick, I would have had her do it.
Please?
It will be a favor to the both of you!
Garth,
What a beautiful soul you have , your daughter is blessed to have such a Dad, God Bless you in your journey, keep on writing
Truly inspiring…I so admire what you’re doing for your daughter. You’ll be in my prayers! Never give up!
Don’t give up! See Dr. Keith Block in Chicago. You can beat this. Your daughter is your best motivation.
Touching and courageous.
God has blessed Emma with a most awesome father! May he keep you & comfort you in the days ahead. Your light shines bright.
Quiet touching as well as inspiring.
Kudos
Dear Garth: I pray our loving God will provide you with a miracle. Your daughter Emma is surely blessed to have you as a Dad.
Such a great soul!!!!! Whole hearted prayers to GOD to help you in your fight. It’s so inspiring to know what you are doing!!! You made Emma proud!!! Your actions are so thoughful & speak to her in volume all through her life!!!
What a lovely idea! Please go to smartpatients.com. This is a must do for cancer patients. You will find many people there with kidney cancer , wonderful support and much knowledge about your disease. If you don’t already have a doctor who is an expert in this rare disease, you should get one. I’m giving you this information so you may be able to see Emma graduate from high school in person. I know far more than I ever wanted to know about kidney cancer, and I learned it from the online support group, ACOR which is now called smartpatients. I was my sister’s advocate and caregiver when she had kidney cancer. I don’t know what I would have done without the loving support, the names of the RCC experts , the latest trials and meds, which I received from this online support group. I’ve been a member since 2001. I hope you don’t think I’m too bold, but if you do, I sincerely apologize. I wish you and Emma well, and I’m sending you healing thoughts.
Louisa
Garth,
All of us have the same amount of time on earth,and that is however long God decides.
I have faith and believe you are right where you are supposed to be.God gave you the gift of your daughter and you’ve shown your love for her with the notes and cherishing each moment. By sharing the notes and what you are going through with the cancer fight,you’ve made a lot of people stop and think and touched more hearts than you could possibly ever know.Thank you for shining your light and love.May God wrap you in his love and hold you in the palm of his hands.Kindest regards,Sheree
From someone that studies food and has had over a dozen people in my family die of cancer let me pass this onto you. Look into PH levels and how cancer cannot thrive when your body is at a certain ph level. Foods and liquids change your body’s ph level and at a certain ph level, I cannot remember what, possibly a ph of 7, cancer is unable to thrive. It’s helped a lot of people. I suggest you look into it. It doesn’t cure cancer, but it does prevent it. 🙂
You are amazing! Thank you for sharing your notes & your story. Keep the faith!
I pray that you will be able to put the notes in her lunch yourself
Garth,
In my family, we call people like you “the light in the darkness.” God has a plan…..you are living it. Proud for you, please know, like so many people, your daughter feels your love, courage, and strength.
I so admire you Garth and know, from experience, that a strong male model, like you, will carry Emma on her way to being a young woman you can be proud of.
I am guessing but I would think one worry you might have would be how Emma will be able to continue her education after high school. Take your notes to a publisher so that your legacy can live on and the proceeds will benefit your daughter. I know from the few I have read that I would love to read them all.
Please drink some Chaga mushroom tea. You can research this on the website. This tea is known to shrink tumor and kill the cancer. Just want to let you know.
What a beautiful man?!! Emma, you are lucky to have such a wonderful wisdoms filled father, I hope his wisdoms and love will carry you through any difficult times. I carried my dad’s wisdoms and teachings with me each and every day for over 44 years. I will pray for you, Garth!
Whether you realize it or not … whether you feel it or not … you are a blessing to your family. Thank you for sharing your story. Peace be with you.
What a wonderful human being you are! You are thoughful and caring and want to be with your daughter when you’re not here any longer. And you WILL always be with her. You know that and she should, too! And if you have five years left who knows what can happen or what cure can be found. Don’t give up! Fight the fight. Don’t give into it. May peace and love always be with you and your family!! People like you restore faith in humanity!
You wrote on our notes to Emma to expect awesome…nothing less.
Garth…just excepts awesome for you as well. You have a beautiful daughter and you are passing on such an amazing lesson to her.
When you really think…the end is not what matters the most, but the path and how you did it.
Keep believing; keep expecting awesome.
You have my prayers.
sincerely, Gabriela
Garth,
Your notes are truly inspiring and so what I’m about to share, you may already know because your notes come across as very inspirational and understanding the big picture. Your daughter is as blessed to have you as you are her. The best part, it is very obvious you are thankful every day for that blessing.
Although I have not had cancer, my mother died of cancer when I was 15. The closer I got to her age, the more I’ve soaked in articles and info into fighting cancer and also our mental state. My 2 favorite sources to date as far as our mental state is from the books “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and Louise Hays “You Can Heal Your Body”. Both books talk about our mental connection to our illness and how if we change our mental state, we can change our illness. Both books have cases of people who were able to treat their cancers with out treatment just by changing their ways of thinking. The also have them in movie form and I recommend The Secret in movie form.
The other information I want to share with you is an article I read not too long ago about a gentleman here in Alaska and what he did to fight his grim diagnosis of cancer. I believe it holds so much truth, especially with what we eat.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20131203/when-terminal-cancer-came-calling-mexico-was-answer-soldotna-sbs-owner
God bless you and your family.
May God bless you and keep you on this earth many many more years. Love and prayers sent your way.
your story is encouraging and inspiring , thank you for sharing with us all and letting us feel the love of an amazing father and his dear daughter . I pray the days and years ahead will be full of living in the moment and making great memories for the future , yours and hers ! You are in my prayers .
No one knows God’s plan, but it sure looks like you’ve been given a gift of inspiration to every parent, male or female, healthy or sick, to realize that their children will need to have you with them long after you’ve gone….your daughter may not know it now, but you will be with her forever….God Bless you both…I believe in miracles…I hope you do too…
Hello Garth and Emma,
Cherish every day as if it is your last. I am so touched by your love and desire to make sure Emma feels that love. It is sad that some parents relinquish their rights to their children or even just pack up and never look back. You are a awesome father, person, and human being for that matter. God only knows the answer why you was chosen for this fight but my guess is he thought who else could do it. Garth is the strongest angel I have on this earth. You are here to teach us all a lesson.
Hi Garth, I recently lost my dad and your story brought a smile and tears to my eyes. I remember when I was little and my dad would make my lunch for me and put it in a brown bag. On the bottom of the bag he would write my name and usually draw a funny picture or write something funny. I was very close with my dad and miss him so much. Your daughter is so lucky to have an such an incredible, loving dad like I had. My thoughts are with you and Emma.
Hey Garth and Emma,may God strengthen both of you as you go via tough times in life like this hurdle.But one thing for sure believe in Jesus as your personal Savior and he will heal you miraculously.He is the healer and He quenches our thirst in our lives. Iam personally moved by what you are going through but God has reason why all this has to happen.I will always remember you in prayer.Amen
You have inspired me! Peace be with you! Keep writing…I will be now!
Garth your story touched my spirit and as a parent and human being I thank you for sharing. You will be in prayers of mine in that all will be well according to the plan of our Creator.
This idea of notes in Emma’s lunch is a wonderful way of remaning connected in love throughout the day. As a daddy’s for over 30 yrs and counting I can appreciate this gesture.
May peace be upon you and your family today and always.
God Bless you, Garth and Emma
Hi Garth, I know there are many trial medications for cancer.
What I’m listing here is a combination of fatty acids and vitamins. Nothing unusual but it’s the combination that makes it work. You can get all of them in a pharmacy. I know people with multiple cancers who have been told 12 years ago they only have 6 months to live and they are alive and kicking today. This combination is researched by a biochemist and it saved his own life.
here’s the combination and it’s recommended to be taken twice daily for people with cancer. These fatty acids carry oxygen to your cells and repair them using nutriments in your body.
each dosage includes
3000 mg evening primrose oil (omega 6 fatty acid) best brand is (efamol)
1000 mg cod liver oil not any other fish oil (omega 3 fatty acid) best brand is (Carlsons)
two capsules of grape seed extract preferably with grape skin (this prevents the fatty acids from oxidization) they also thin your blood
1000 mg of vitamin D
2 capsules of good natural multivitamin ( I use melaluka vitality, they have ones for men and for women) Any good brand of multivitamin will do
All together it’s 9 pieces of pills twice a day.
The only thing that counteracts with these are painkillers. It makes them not as effective.
I wish you good luck and if you think you can bit this thing then you will. In any way possible. For Emma
Good luck to you
Garth,what a kind father you are. I would have given anything to have a father like you. Your gesture towards your daughter just shows how you are probably a wonderful father.
I am sorry you have had such a rough time,it’s unfair that good people get Cancer.
Please look into Cannabis oil,it is receiving more and more recognition for beating certain types of cancers. http://phoenixtears.ca/
I wish you all the best and I hope you beat this
Kim
Garth, I recently lost my mom to cancer. I am 23 and I would kill to have something like this that could have kept us connected. I can tell you that even if your daughter hits the phase where its “super lame” to get Dad writing her notes in her lunch, she will still smile and think about you and, for that second of the day, she will get to be happy and remember all the amazing times you had.
I wish you all the best and hope you pull through! Best of luck; Keep Fighting
From France – my true best wishes to you & family.
Don’t lose hope – everything could happen!
Garth, your commitment to your daughter is inspiring, and the messages in your napkin notes really underlines that commitment.
For you, I suggest reading the book Mind Over Medicine by Dr. Lissa Rankin. The book discusses the extensive research Dr. Rankin has done about the power of the mind to heal our bodies and discuses some amazing recoveries people have had from all kinds of diseases, including cancer. She concludes the book with some steps everyone can take to heal themselves. She also has a special on PBS out right now that you can check the schedule of your local PBS station. Also she has done a couple of TEDx talks that you can find on the web. Go for it, fight for your life.
I’m crying, :'(
That’s a lot of love, everything will be alright.
Dear Garth,
You truly are an inspiration!! I will pray for you! I wish you love, happiness and peace always!! Be strong!! Your relationship with your daughter is beautiful! I know in her heart YOU are HER HERO and will always be!!! May god bless you and watch over you always.
Love,
Sharon
I just saw you and our beautiful daughter on Rachel Ray and am so inspired by your positive attitude. Bless you Vickie
Reading this brought tears to my eyes and I truly pray from the bottom of my heart that you fully recover! You are an inspiration for so many and I hope that may God always keep you happy and healthy and in his grace!
Garth..You just made my fathers day!, there is so much wrong in this world today ,its wonderful to read this and know there is people who really and truly appreciate what they have been given and to give back and keep love strong in our hearts long after we are gone! I am a father of two and do similar things to let the special people in my life know they are special to me , it also works for ANYONE that you love or you want to know you care! My way of doing this is similar and it really expresseses your feelings to your loved ones and being unexpected by them creates reactions that will warm your heart also! :), what I do is leave random notes in drawers,or cupboards ,under the blankets, in her purse, car, or jacket pocket ect. works for kids, spouse, parent or even just friends. Notes might read a simple: I love you! or, I miss you right now ,or a poem or prayer, even just a hello will let the person know you are thinking of them. Its so nice to hear that others do special meaningful things for each other aswell still in this crazy world we live in. With so much love and respect, stay strong don’t give up and you can beat this! you already have!
You are the Father I wish I could be….. you are an inspiration….. not just to your daughter anymore but to us all… I pray you beat the odds…. I’m sure you will .
Your napkin message that reads
” Dear Emma, Sometimes when I need a miracle , I look into your eyes and realise I have already created one. Love Dad”
had me spontaneously and unexpectedly burst into tears. My daughter who is 12 years old is suffering low self esteem, self harming and has dabbled with anorexia in the recent past. We are seeking help but its slow in coming to fruition. The situation really frightens me and makes me feel powerless. Your promise has made me realise that I can do something small everyday that will remind my daughter how much I love her and how truly inspiring she is despite her difficulties. I will do this because I said I would. Thank you . Rosie
If he turned these into a book, I would buy it! What a great Dad and awesome legacy he is providing for her!
There actually is a book! http://www.napkinnotesdad.com