Eric was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma in May, 2004. He had been having headaches and aphasia for months. His oncologist (yes, this was a second bout with a life threatening illness) kept saying he was depressed. I finally rushed him to the ER where a very caring young resident did his first CT scan. When Eric saw the scan he said to me ‘This is going to take my life’ and cried.

He had already been through 2 years of chemo for his lymphoma and a stem cell transplant. He enjoyed 8 years of relative good health but never had one day's peace of mind. We were told that there was a chance of a secondary cancer. Even a routine appendectomy was terrifying. The GBM was diagnosed a mere 4 months after Eric’s infected port had to be surgically removed.

Eric was a chef, one of the youngest in St. Louis prior to his BT. He was a sweet, funny young man who worked hard, loved music, snowboarding, his yellow bicycle and his fiance Rachel.

“When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.” - Chief Arupumut, Mohican

After his diagnosis he and Rachel bought a house in Florissant, Missouri, and for the last 18 months of his life he worked to make the house a real home, because he wanted Rachel to have something nice when he was no longer there for her. Eric told me he would be happy if he could just live in that house a year, he made it for 18 months.

There were so many people who helped support Eric, strangers who donated money at 2 fundraisers, his Aunt Diana and Uncle Steve, an internet letter that was emailed from person to person and netted thousands for his support and treatments. It was unbelievable how many wanted to help this young man. He didn’t have a fortune, but he was able to live independently with Rachel and was able to pay the State of Missouri Medicaid fee, his house payment and buy a CD if he wanted. Eric was treated at the University of Chicago Hospital by Dr. Nicholas and his surgeon was Dr. Lesniak. We drove the 10 hours round trip as often as needed. They never lost hope and Eric never thought they couldn’t help him. Even to the end, he wanted me to rush him to Chicago so they could ‘fix it’.

Eric continued to bike on every nice day he could, almost until he could no longer walk. He did so well until about the last 3 weeks of his life, we all thought he could beat it. He was so strong physically. He survived 2 surgeries for BT, a hernia repair, radiation, IL-13, and only a round of shingles knocked him down. In the end, the beast won. We thought we could beat it, but it beat us. My heart broken, I buried my son in April, 2006. He was my hero. I couldn’t fix it.

Mary Ann, proud and heartbroken mother of Eric Buss.