Saugus church fair to benefit cancer patient

SAUGUS – When Samuel Goncalves was 18, he was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma, a type of cancer that spread to his lungs and rapidly grew after he started chemotherapy.The tumor eventually got so big that it pushed his heart to the side. Goncalves had emergency surgery to remove the tumor along with his entire left lung.Now after five years, 13 rounds of chemo, seven weeks of radiation, two more surgeries and two bone marrow transplants, Goncalves received news that he called “devastating.””I got the bad news that the cancer came back to my liver now,” said Goncalves. “I’ve been fighting for four or five years now and I thought this time I was really done with it.”To help raise funds for future treatments, the United Methodist Church in Cliftondale Square, where Goncalves’ father Juarez is the pastor, will be holding a fair and yard sale today at 8 a.m.”I felt really happy because our community responded with helping us,” said Juarez. “A lot of families are donating a lot of stuff. It makes us feel really loved by the community. The support from the church has really helped us and God in his way is doing everything to help us.”So far Goncalves, who works at the church when he’s healthy enough, said people have donated two cars, five full car detail services and a pair of facials to be sold at the church this weekend, along with clothes, food and face-painting for kids.Because his bone marrow is too weak to resume treatment just yet, Goncalves said he’s on a list for an new experimental trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, where a virus is injected into the liver. Goncalves said experiments on animals have worked and said there is a chance it can work on him.”Right now they’re doing tests and I’m going to be one of the patients to do that test because there’s really nothing else,” said Goncalves.The fair will get under way at 8 a.m. at the United Methodist Church at 493 Lincoln Ave. and last until 3 p.m. All proceeds will go toward future medical costs for Goncalves.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at @MattTempesta.