It’s difficult enough to have one loved one experience cancer, but three at one time? Unimaginable.
But that’s reality for the Desclef family.
Benoit Desclef, his wife, Kathy Desclefs, and their 17-year-old son Luke are each battling a different form of cancer.
“Oh, it’s hard to process,” Kathy Desclefs told CNN affiliate WJXT.
It all started five years ago when Kathy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Then, in August, Benoit was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, then Luke was diagnosed that October with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Benoit, a French chef, moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to start a restaurant and experience the American dream. He called it The Magnificat Cafe. Now, the family has to put the business on the market due to their failing health.
“With Benoit, they’ve said roughly 12 years. With Luke, he has a very good prognosis if he responds to treatment and we’ll know how well he responds next week when they do a PET scan (positron emission tomography),” Kathy said. “For me, it’s hard to say because the variant I have is so rare they don’t have a lot of data on that.”
All the family is asking for is for people to come to the restaurant and help them stay in business through this hard time.
They have had to hire extra help in order to keep it going.
Kathy explained that all they can do it rely on their faith. “We are set up for God to show up because it’s so over the top,” she said.
