INTRODUCING

Winning Personality and Dad Jokes Connoisseur

Last year, Chris Stein graced the WOH stage to talk about his cancer journey and to entertain us all with his "Dad Jokes!" His family was honored to hear that Wings of Hope was interested in paying tribute to him once again this year. Chris has recently had some significant difficulties in his fight and has been spending valuable time with his wife and 11-year old son. Your donation will help with his medical bills and bring some much needed hope to the family at a difficult time. 

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Chris Stein has spent his professional career as a pastor, clinical healthcare chaplain/counselor, and a local and national event worship leader.  A pastoral transfer brought Chris to the Pottstown area 23 years ago where he found a great place to raise a family and call home.

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Chris was first diagnosed with a brain tumor at 27 years old in 2001. It was resected but a stroke during the surgery complicated his recovery and the location of the tumor necessitated the removal of areas of the brain that control and retain music memory and recall.  After waking up Chris found out that he had no memory of any music, including the CDs he had recorded.  He also had limited fine motor control so his ability to play guitar was greatly impacted and he had to spend some time at an in-patient physical rehab center.  An oncology treatment resulted in a bone disease which necessitated the removal of necrotic bone and the replacement of a hip and femur.  This all ultimately resulted in his no longer being able to continue to travel for music.  But God is good and Chris was able to recover enough ability to serve as a spokesman/event host/performer for the National Brain Tumor Society and played and spoke at events in the Northeast.  It was at this time that he met his wife, also a brain tumor survivor.

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Fast forward to 2006  the original grade 2 diffuse astrocytoma was back with a new grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma.  Treatment for this went much better and he continued in his clinical residency while having surgery and receiving treatments on his residency lunch hour in the hospital. 

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In the Fall of 2021 Chris was diagnosed with his 4th brain tumor but it did not encapsulate as a normal tumor would.  It spread through the right side in the remaining brain tissue then crossed into the brain stem and into the left hemisphere.  The cancer was considered inoperable and treatment options were limited.  A second round of full brain radiation, though risky, was felt as the best option in addition to chemotherapy and immunotherapies.  This did result in radiation damage and radiation induced Parkinsonism.  This is an umbrella term for several disease processes and symptoms can be drawn from any of them.