Doug, Eli, Tanner and Karen Gaines pose for a photo this week. (Seth Miller for The Cullman Tribune)
CULLMAN – A recent letter to Santa published in The Cullman Tribune prompted a strong response from the community. The letter, written by 10-year-old Eli Gaines, a fourth grader at East Elementary School, expressed a very personal wish: Eli wants his dad’s cancer to go away.
Eli’s letter read, in part, “My mom wants me to make a Christmas list, but I don’t need to because I only want 2 things, a Nintendo Switch and my dad’s cancer to go away because I want him to see me play football in high school and college and the NFL.”
East Elementary Principal David Wiggins said, “Eli’s letter shows the heart of children. It allows us to see through their eyes about what matters most.”
The Tribune recently met with Eli, his parents Doug and Karen, and older brother Tanner. The family has a love of sports, laughter and God that have been great comforts during Doug’s battle with lung cancer.
Karen spoke about Doug’s illness, saying, “In November of 2015, Doug was having surgery to remove the cancer from his right lung. By the time they had gone in to take out the tumor, it had gotten so big they had to remove his entire lung. This was at St. Vincent’s.
“When he recovered from his surgery, done on Nov. 13, 2015, he had four rounds of clean-up chemo, they called it, starting in January 2016. He started getting sick again in the summer of 2016 and he went back to the doctor. We found out the cancer had come back in his other lung and in the lymph node at the end of his trachea. They said chemo wasn’t an option, so they started him on a trial with OPDIVO, an autoimmune drug. He’s been on it for two and a half years now and it has shrunk the cancer so small. It’s still there, but it’s not growing. It’s really small but they didn’t give us any measurements.”
Karen continued, “He’s taken it once a month for two and a half years, he does a CT scan every other month, and actually, he went to have his treatment Wednesday and they told him it would be his last one. They will check him on January 16. Then, 40 days after that. They’ll do a CT in three months. If it starts growing again they could start the treatment again.”
Prior to the OPDIVO, Doug’s cardiothoracic surgeon and oncologist at St. Vincent’s had given him a grim prognosis of just 4-6 months. Doug’s results on the trial have been far better than expected and better than most people receiving the treatment.
Doug said, “My oncologist said I was the poster child for the drug.”
Doug credits positive attitude and prayer as major parts of his success.
Karen added, “A LOT of prayers! You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who have prayed for us during all of this. All of my clients, churches, people at the schools, people he works with and so many.”
Doug is a building inspector for the City of Cullman and his coworkers donated their time, so he wouldn’t have to take his own time.
The Gaineses are also involved with the Cullman Bearcat youth football program. Doug has been a coach for six years and the organization has supported him with special decals on the players’ helmets and jerseys saying, “Pray for Doug.” One player took it upon himself to write that message on the top of his hand prior to games.
Both Eli and his brother Tanner are involved in sports. They love all sports including football, basketball and baseball. Sports is a love the family shares. Doug and Tanner are Auburn fans while Karen and Eli cheer for the Crimson Tide.
Doug loves being a youth football coach and has coached both boys and continues to coach Eli.
Doug recalled, “I had to sit on the sidelines when I was sick. I had a lot of people help me. They put up tents and a chair for me.”
Karen laughed, “They actually won the championship that year. They dumped the water on him and he had his oxygen equipment on him.”
Eli smiled, “This year he was actually standing on the sidelines!”
Eli plays quarterback and defensive back for the Bearcats youth team and Tanner plays quarterback and receiver for Cullman Middle School. Both are good students with Tanner recently being inducted into the Beta Club.
Doug said proudly, “They are good boys. Not just because they are mine. They are great kids.”
This was evident in Tanner’s admission when asked who the better athlete was.
Tanner said, “When I was Eli’s age, I mean, he is better than me when I was that age.”
“The thing that upsets Doug the most is he can’t go out in the yard and throw the football with the boys,” Karen said. “There are limitations Doug faces with having only one lung. He is easily winded, and the cold temperatures makes breathing more difficult due to less oxygen in the air. Things like vacations have also been difficult due to Doug’s health and medical expenses.”
Doug has a positive attitude, saying, “There’s things you can’t do. I mean, and this is the selfish human in me because I’m alive and I ought to be thankful enough for that but again, it’s also a burden that I can’t get up and shoot basketball, or throw the basketball or the football, or walk to the deer stand rather than being driven up to it and dropped off. All the things people take for granted until you lose it. All I asked for when I was told I had cancer was God please let me live long enough to see these boys become fine young men before you take me out.”
He smiled, “So far, we are heading in that direction. The other stuff, how selfish we can get as humans because I overlooked my real treasures for stuff that really didn’t matter.”
When Eli’s letter to Santa was printed in The Tribune, the Gaineses didn’t know about it and neither are on Facebook. Friends began sharing it, and a week later, Karen finally saw it and said she “cried like a baby.”
Tanner said, “I haven’t read it yet. I just feel bad because dad can’t do the stuff with Eli that he used to do with me.”
Said Eli, “I knew it would be in the paper. I asked my dad, did you cry when you read the letter? He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘I didn’t know you cried!’ My dad said, ‘I didn’t. Tears just came up in my eyes.’”
Eli Gaines- Letter to Santa by on Scribd
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