James Van Der Beek Moved His Family To Texas, And Still Went Broke Fighting Cancer

A few years ago, James Van Der Beek took his family out of Los Angeles. He moved his wife Kimberly and their six kids to Texas, bought a house and fixed it up himself along with the property. He was, by every account, a humble man who loved being a dad.

“When you think you’ve got it down, you get one that throws a curveball at you,” he told People about raising six kids. He said the biggest delight was watching them take care of each other. “For whatever I’ve done wrong, I’m doing something right here.”

On February 11, he died from complications of stage 3 colorectal cancer. He was 48. His youngest is 4.

And now his family is out of money.

According to a GoFundMe set up by friends, the costs of his medical care and extended cancer fight left the family with nothing. They are working to stay in their home and keep their children in school.

The GoFundMe passed $1 million in less than 24 hours. You can still donate.

That says something beautiful about people. But it also says something brutal about this country. A working actor with a decades-long career and six kids can do everything right, move somewhere affordable, live humbly, and still get wiped out by cancer treatment.

It might sound impossible for a celebrity to go broke. But this case shows us that fighting cancer in America is truly one of the hardest things a family can go through. It happens to families every single day who don’t have a GoFundMe that goes viral.

Love the people around you. Support them. Check in on them. You never know what someone is going through. Keep all those with cancer in your prayers, and their families too.