Michael Bender

On December 11, 1980 6 pound 19 inch Michael Sean Bender was born in Schaumburg, Illinois.  Michael Lived with his family in Illinois until 1987 when they moved to San Diego, California. He went to Miller Elementary, Del Dios Middle school and graduated high school in 1999 from San Pasqual in Escondido. Growing up Michael was involved in many sports which included basketball, baseball and his high school's swim team where he made varsity after only 2 years. 

Like much of his family Mike was a diehard Cubs fan and nothing stopped him from watching opening day.  When baseball season ended the Cubs jersey would go back into the closet and the Chicago Bears jersey replaced it. 

In order to pay for his sports obsession Mike eventually had to get a real job so at 19 he packed his bags and moved East where he became an flight attendant for United.  That job gave Mike many opportunites to travel to several different stadiums to watch games and he couldn't have been happier.  Unfortunately, his dream came to an early end on September 11, 2001 when our twin towers and the Pentagon were attacked.  Many airline employees including Mike lost their jobs after that tragedy so Mike prematurly found his way back home to California.  Mike may have been down but not out.  He quickly enrolled himself into Palomar Community College where he earned his associates degree in general education and transferreed to San Marcos State University to become a high school english teacher. 

September 2005 Mike got news that he had a rare cancer: desmoplastic small round cell tumor.  He was given a meek prognosis but once again that didn't stop Mike from living as much as possible and fight as hard as he could.  He would go on to play softball on an adult recreational league between chemotherapy sessions, go to church sermons and functions between surgeries and found time to be with his friends and family between hospital stays. 

Michael fought longer and harder than any doctor imagined possible. Originally given 6 months to live, Michael fought for nearly 3 years.  September 8, 2008 his battle ended, but will never be forgotten.  Michael was involved in several trial studies that have been and will continue to be useful in future studies of this disease, and hopefully one day will have been part of the cure.
 
This website is dedicated to Michael Sean Bender where we can all share stories of his life and forever remember this wonderful man.