From “Why Me?” to “Why Not Me?”: Jon and Donna’s Story
Summary: On this episode of the Inheritance of Hope Podcast, young father Jon and his wife Donna discuss his two time diagnosis of testicular cancer. This episode unpacks what that experience was like for the Strebe family. Through the hardest part of their lives, they found bold courage to share their story, and they experienced God deeply because of it. Listen to how they navigated cancer as young parents and the joy they found through Inheritance of Hope’s services.
Finding strength after a cancer diagnosis
Though dealing with terminal illness is rough for any family, Jon and Donna Strebe didn’t shy away from their adversity: they embraced it throughout both times Jon’s testicular cancer popped up in 2005 and 2012.
It all started when one of their friends offered to create a fundraiser for them. The friend and Jon came up with the “Godstrong” campaign, a play off of Lance Armstrong’s “Livestrong” because he also dealt with testicular cancer and even had the same doctor Jon had.
With this campaign, they created t-shirts with the aforementioned word on it and ended up raising $25,000 dollars, which helped them cover medical bills.
“I couldn’t help [my wife]. I couldn’t help our kids. I couldn’t do anything. And I knew that if I didn’t allow people to help us that it wasn’t just me that it was affecting…getting to a place where you can allow yourself to let other people in and say, ‘Yes, we need help and here’s how you can help.’ For me it was an important lesson to learn,” Jon shares.
Hopeful reminders of a difficult past
While fundraising, Jon’s wife Donna was blogging his cancer journey to retain memories from when Jon was first diagnosed, and advocate for the often overlooked stories of families dealing with terminal illness.
Donna says, “Our kids don’t remember all the stories but I have them all written down and they can see how people pitched in and hopefully they’ll grow up to help others and you know through difficult times.”
Even when not writing on her blog, she has saved all types of memorabilia (even text messages) from her days as a caretaker because she ultimately wants to write a book to help more families in similar situations to them.
While giving support to others during their time of need, their community was also helping support them with prayers and warm wishes for their family. There was even a small act of kindness that Donna looks back on fondly during a time Jon was in surgery.
She entered a Starbucks on the verge of tears and when she was trying to find her card to pay for her drink, a stranger bought it for her.
“I just started crying and he literally pulled me aside and I told him real quick, you know, my husband’s going through cancer. You have no idea what that meant to me. And he literally stood in the Starbucks and prayed with me,” Donna say when looking back at that time.
How one trip to Disney changed it all
Though the family was already making strides in accepting Jon’s diagnosis, becoming part of the Inheritance of Hope community was nothing but beneficial. In 2013, after one of their nurse practitioners told them about Inheritance of Hope’s upcoming Disney World Legacy Retreat® ,they decided to check it out despite already visiting multiple times before.
Jon remarked that they were “Treated like nobody has ever treated us before, and I’m sure will never treat us like that again… Everything was done for us. And when I say everything, I mean everything. The volunteers, the people that were with us, like they did absolutely everything to make that trip for us the most memorable.”
For Jon, being able to connect with other dads with the same diagnosis as him gave him the empathy and further spiritual connection he needed to get through his diagnosis. Donna shared that they are still in contact with some families today.
The Strebe family continues to stay involved with Inheritance of Hope and even continues their advocacy as volunteers for the nonprofit. Their story goes to show that terminal illness is nothing to be ashamed about and that community can be found in even the most dire of circumstances.
To join Jon and Donna in creating a more hopeful environment for other young families facing a parent’s terminal illness, go to InheritanceOfHope.org to apply to be a volunteer. To help continue to offering these services, consider also making a one-time or monthly donation through our website.
For the full version of our conversation with Jon and Donna, check out our completely free podcast on YouTube for their and others’ Inheritance of Hope testimonials.
Kennedy Owens is a junior psychology major at Florida Southern College and branding intern for Inheritance of Hope. In her spare time, she likes to work on her art YouTube TV show ViperTV and learn random fun facts about the brain.