Scottish Catholic Observer

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia has given his support to a campaign to raise funds to help a young father diagnosed with cancer get an experimental treatment.

As the SCO reported last week, Craig and Marzena Asher’s son Angus was just a month old when his father was told he had stage four stomach cancer. Speaking to the SCO from Germany where he is receiving treatment, Mr Asher (right, with his family) said that though he was raised a Protestant he has recently received his first Holy Communion and Confession as he prepares to join the Catholic Church.

“I would always go to Mass with Marzena,” he said, “And I had planned to join the Church, as I thought it would good to enter the Faith as my son Agnus did, so we both grow in it together, but we’ve had to move that up a bit. I have found it a great comfort.”

In a special message from Archbishop Tartaglia of Glasgow to the two parishioners of the Immaculate Conception in Maryhill, he said he welcomed Craig into the Catholic Church.

“I offer him and his family the promise of my prayers that he will be able to receive the treatment that will help him,” he said.

His wife Marzena said that though she had never pressured her husband to become a Catholic, it had made her very happy. “If the worst happens,” she said, “it gives me great comfort to know I will see him again in Paradise.”

The couple are currently in Germany as Craig undergoes chemotherapy, and hopes to receives the new immunology treatment later this year.

“This treatment is so far only approved for skin cancer, not stomach cancer on the NHS,” Mr Asher said. “We were in a trial in the UK, but the tumour wasn’t growing fast enough for me to qualify, so we felt we had to bite the bullet and come here, even though that means I no longer get Chemo on the NHS so we have to pay for that too.”

The Couple are currently trying to crowdfund support to pay for the treatment which they expect to cost around £60,000. Mrs Asher added: “Even if there is only a two per cent chance we have to try, for our son.”

Mr Asher’s parents were able to bring Angus over to see them in Germany just before Christmas.

“When I saw him again it was so wonderful,” Mrs Asher said. “I couldn’t stop crying I didn’t want to let go of him. He gives us so much strength. When you see him smile, no matter how down we are feeling, we can’t help but smile back.”

You can help Marzena, Craig and little Adam Asher by visiting: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/marzena-asher-2
—This story ran in full in the January 13 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.