Thankful for Today and Those Who Give Back

When Bri­an Hill was nom­i­nat­ed for a ​“moment” through Moments That Mat­ter, it took some convincing.

“We were nom­i­nat­ed a long time ago and we’re hum­ble peo­ple,” said Brian’s wife, Mar­sha. ​“We’ve always been givers, so to take some­thing was hard.”

Moments That Mat­ter, a fund through the QMG Foun­da­tion, pro­vides mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences for indi­vid­u­als fac­ing a ter­mi­nal ill­ness. The QMG Foun­da­tion team didn’t give up eas­i­ly, call­ing Mar­sha from time to time to try to con­vince the cou­ple to change their minds. Marsha’s cowork­er, Ali­cia Watkins, nom­i­nat­ed Bri­an because she knew they were deserving.

“They, both Mar­sha and Bri­an, would give the shirt off their backs for any­one in need,” Watkins said.

The last three years have been dif­fi­cult for the Hills, and Watkins want­ed them to expe­ri­ence a moment away from their wor­ries, if just for a lit­tle bit. In April 2019, Bri­an was diag­nosed with Stage 4 renal cell car­ci­no­ma. After a con­cern­ing symp­tom, Bri­an was seen by QMG Physi­cian Dr. Korhan Raif, who Mar­sha has worked with for 22 years. Dr. Raif ordered an ultra­sound and imme­di­ate­ly a large tumor was detected.

After surgery to remove the tumor, Bri­an began treat­ment. The diag­no­sis is ter­mi­nal and the weight of that is dif­fi­cult to live with, said Mar­sha, but they try to main­tain a pos­i­tive outlook.

“It has been a very tough road, to say the least, but he has made it three years since his diag­no­sis and how grate­ful we are,” Mar­sha shared.

After sev­er­al weeks of per­sis­tence from the QMG Foun­da­tion team, the Hills final­ly said ​“yes” and were giv­en a trip to Jupiter, FL, to enjoy the Flori­da sun­shine, the beach, and some base­ball. Bri­an is a St. Louis Car­di­nals fan, and got to take in a cou­ple days of the team’s spring train­ing. The cou­ple was joined by their daugh­ter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.

“It was so nice and we were able to relax. Going to spring train­ing was the ulti­mate goal and he got to enjoy that,” Martha said. ​“It was such a pre­cious gift to have that time together.”

Bri­an con­tin­ues with treat­ment. His can­cer has spread to his lungs, lymph nodes, and bones. He’s now on a tar­get­ed ther­a­py, which is a main­te­nance treatment.

“There’s small growth, which is great. We’ll take it. He’s able to live an aver­age, qual­i­ty of life. It’s def­i­nite­ly not his norm, prob­a­bly nev­er will be. He’s able to get up and go, fish a lit­tle bit, and help farm a bit on a fam­i­ly farm. He can’t go a full day, but he can do a lit­tle at time,” Mar­sha shared.

Mar­sha said her work fam­i­ly has sup­port­ed them through­out their jour­ney and that sup­port has lift­ed them through this dif­fi­cult time.

“I have been an employ­ee with QMG Pleas­ant Hill/​Barry work­ing with Dr. Korhan Raif for 22 years and can def­i­nite­ly say it has been a gift. He and his wife Dr. Ayca Raif have been a huge sup­port in this jour­ney,” she said. ​“Also my work fam­i­ly is so sup­port­ive. It has been a plea­sure work­ing here, and I have met some life­long friends. You just can’t put into words how for­tu­nate one is when you are faced with major hur­dles in life.”

Despite their dif­fi­cult days, Mar­sha said there has been so much good sur­round­ing them.

“One just does not know how life can change, but we should all be thank­ful for today and those who give back,” Mar­sha said. ​“There are some superb, great folks in this world and I would def­i­nite­ly con­sid­er QMG Foun­da­tion part of that. Thank you is not enough, but we are so grateful.”

For more infor­ma­tion on Moments That Mat­ter, vis­it https://​qmg​mo​ments​.com/.