Young Parents Battle Cancer To Raise Small Girls

Ben and Shelby Offrink have life-threatening cancer diseases that are just six months apart. Friends and relatives joined them for a party on heart-shaped pizza to 'live up' life, according to today.

It was in February 2014 that 31-year-old Shelby found that her back pain was intramedullary glioblastoma, which is a "rare and aggressive form of cancer". "So it's actually tangled into the spinal cord itself," Ben explains. "If you'd imagine a meatball inside a bunch of spaghetti, you can't just easily take it out without damaging a bunch of the spinal cord itself," according to cnn.

Worse, 35-year-old Ben was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma for the third time in August, just 20 years after he thought he had recovered.

However, they met on Valentine's Day to express their love for each other, as well as their daughters: Maeve, 4, and Hazel, 18 months.

"We voice how much we love each other as much as we can every day," Ben said. "Our love is more apparent than ever and with the girls too. When Maeve tells me she loves me now, my heart melts more than ever before."

Ben and Shelby's parents and siblings have come over to the house to help out with all the work. "Believe me, it takes all of us," says Shelby's mom Kathy Tomczak, who has taken leave from work in order to help her daughter.

"It feels really unfair to have all of this happen," said Jay Tomczak, Shelby's older brother, according to wzzm13. "It's just shocking, you know? "

"At first it just seemed like a terrible dream," said Luke, Jay and Shelby's younger brother.

"I feel a lot of their pain," said Jay, while sighing heavily. "As a brother it has been a very difficult thing to absorb. I think one of the things that has made it possible for them to get through is the love and support from the family and all the friends."

Elizabeth Malartsick, Shelby's childhood friend and college roommate, started an online fundraiser, which has won $180,000. Much of the money will be saved for the girls, while the rest will go for medical expenses.

"It's incredible to see them lean on each other for support," said Malartsick. "Obviously the circumstances have changed, but they're not letting that get in the way of the love the four of them share."

Shelby is paralyzed and moves on a wheelchair, yet the family went recently to a zoo. "Most of the time we just take things day by day and understand that we have a limited time with each other so we're doing the best we can with what we have," Ben added.

Ben finished chemotherapy and is on a trial drug that makes him drive for a couple of hours from home in Caledonia, Michigan, so that his blood can be drawn at the University of Michigan thrice a week. Yet, he visits his wife everyday in the hospital with the girls. "Maeve knows that mommy's sick, but it's hard to describe to an adult, let alone a 4-year-old child what's going on," he said.

"We're holding out hope and fighting every day," Ben said. "We want to show our girls that there's still a lot to love about life."