Coming together for a friend in need

The community is coming together again to support AJ and Michelle Pass as AJ continues to fight stage four Ewing’s sarcoma, this time with a benefit planned for Feb. 18 at VFW Post 1371, located at 207 Main St. in Owego. 

The event is a Doubles Cornhole Tournament with cash prizes offered to the top three teams. Registration is $40 per team and begins at noon; bags fly at 1 p.m. There will also be a chicken barbecue for $15 per dinner sold from noon until gone.

AJ was first diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in early 2019. He underwent his first surgery performed by Dr. Bratslavsky and his teams of doctors at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.

A massive tumor was removed from his body on April 24, 2019. The tumor had originally formed on his adrenal gland on top of his right kidney. The adrenal gland and the kidney had to be removed along with half of his liver, half of his diaphragm and his vena cava, the largest vein in the body. 

According to Michelle Pass, they had to be removed simultaneously; the tumor weighed 16 pounds and had grown to within a centimeter of his heart. He subsequently suffered cardiac arrest during the surgery and had to be revived by Dr. Bratslavsky until AJ was put on emergency bypass. 

She added that AJ spent 18 days in the ICU unit at SUNY Upstate medical and miraculously left the hospital in only 24 days.

The tumor turned out to be Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that is typically found in children’s bones, it is almost unheard of to arise on the adrenal gland of an adult and Dr. Bratslavsky said that AJ was one in 250 million to even have this diagnosis. 

“The surgery saved AJ‘s life,” stated Michelle Pass, adding, “The journey to recovery that AJ has been on has not been easy.”

After a PET scan in 2019 he was also diagnosed at the same time with Papillary Thyroid cancer and had to have the whole thyroid removed in June of 2020.

In March 2021 he had gone to Cleveland Clinic Hematology Oncology and was told by his new doctor, Dr. Pete Anderson, that there were new tumors in his lungs (metastases, now stage 4) and he would have to endure a new surgery to remove a lobe of his left lung followed by many more chemo treatments. 

Over the next several months, AJ would have a very brutal chemo that just ravaged his body and his skin and his daily life. In November 2021, at another scan appointment, AJ and Michele were told the tumors had shrunk and he would now be a candidate for whole lung radiation. In December 2021 he underwent the radiation at the Cleveland clinic to help make the tumors go away with the goal to achieve remission.

On Feb. 28, 2022, and after enduring three cancer surgeries, the daily effects of the cancer and chemo have changed his daily life. AJ was able to shout out to his world of supporters that he was officially in remission. 

Remission was short lived, and in May 2022 his scan appointment revealed the news no one wanted. There were new tumors that were too close to the heart to operate this time. He would again have to have radiation and begin a daily regimen of oral chemo that he would be taking at home. 

The chemo was AJ‘s daily routine now. It made him sick, tired, and yet he fought every day to survive and to live the life he loves. In August 2022 the scans at Cleveland Clinic showed the radiation and chemo were continuing to work. As each month goes, AJ tries so hard to live his life as normal as he can. 

The benefit idea came up after Jan. 25, 2023 AJ and Michelle went for his scheduled scans appointment in Cleveland and received the bad news that there are new tumors, and the existing ones in his lungs are growing. The current chemo is no longer working, and surgery and radiation are not an option for him at this time. He has to undergo another aggressive chemo to try to stop this cancer immediately. They are at the Cleveland Clinic currently. 

AJ is so full of life and is described as having a big heart. Enduring all that he and Michelle have, he’s fighting every day to live. He will tell you there’s no greater town in the world than Owego, N.Y., and to him it is heaven on earth. 

The medical costs and the toll that cancer has taken on his life is overwhelming.  If you sit down with AJ he will share stories, caring for his wife, family and friends more than he does himself. He loves his golf and he loves his Buffalo Bills! 

All he wants to do is get back on his mountain bike again. AJ will tell you he loves life, he wants to live more than anything and he’s really, really fighting. 

“What a wonderful community we live in,” the couple stated.