One of the first POTD sites I submitted to and won was Rick Slaven's AzColt.com site. As many of you know, Rick has been battling brain cancer over the past few years and having small victories with many surgeries. But it's appearing the surgeries have not been enough.
His site went idle around January 22, 2009 and doing some research turned up the following posted two days later by former member Mark Westake on Shutterbugs.biz:
Hi mARK,
Im really sick...I have been falling down and I am now like I was before the first brain surgery.....Next Friday I am going back in to surgery again as the tumor is growing....this will not cure it but it will give me some more time....feel free to pass this on my brother....
Rick
He had the surgery on January 30 and Mark received this from Rick's wife Marilyn the next day.
We didn't get the results we were looking for. The tumor has spread farther into the brain. The surgeon said he has done all he can. He inserted some radioactive wafers & closed him up. Now we can only hope to buy him some quality time.
That was three weeks ago and I have nothing further.
Sickness and death are all part of this sinful world we live in, but through prayers we can still appeal to the Almighty God, Creator of this universe for His healing on Rick. At the very least, I pray that Rick's remaining time will be full of joy, peace, comfort, and the love of his family and friends.
He has meant a great deal to the POTD community and will hopefully be able to contribute even more.