Categories: Fitness

Longtime CrossFit Coach Danny Lesslie Faces $200,000 in Medical Bills for Wife’s Cancer Treatment

Find out how you’ll be able to support Raffi Dobles in her fight against cancer.

Last updated on March eleventh, 2024

All Danny Lesslie can do without delay is take it “daily.”

For 4 years, he has watched his wife, Raffi Dobles, suffer. She has Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a standard variety of skin cancer, but what makes Dobles’ diagnosis rare is that it was first found on her vulva, Lesslie explained.

And then it spread. It spread to her lymph nodes, and today, she has multiple inoperable tumors that make it painful for her even to take a seat, let alone walk, or work out like she used to.

“Riding within the automotive, she has to put the seats all the best way back. She can hardly walk. It’s horrible,” Lesslie, a former CrossFit affiliate owner, said. “At this point, I don’t think any doctor can really tell us [the prognosis, but] it’s serious…It’s Stage 4. You don’t come back to Stage 2.”

Lesslie began his CrossFit journey at CrossFit Los Angeles in 2009 and has coached at multiple gyms through the years. He has 7- and 8-year-old daughters with Dobles.

“There have been some really dark days. She has been in a whole lot of pain for a very long time. There have been many nights where I believed it was going to interrupt her, and we’re talking a few woman who has had two babies with no drugs…I’m praying to only attempt to get through the night.”

The dark days only became more stressful when Lasslie was laid off from his job last September. Since then, he has been out of labor and has been staying at home to take care of Dobles and his two young children. All the while, the medical bills are piling up.

And they’re about to pile even higher, as Lesslie and Dobles, and their two kids, are about to maneuver to Scottsdale, AZ, for 14 weeks so Dobles can undergo cancer treatment with a hefty price tag.

“We’re taking a look at no less than $8,000 every Monday morning to get treated for that week,” Lesslie said, adding that they’re expecting to need to pay $200,000 in the subsequent three months.

Controlling What He Can

It can be easy for Lesslie to all but surrender, but he’s selecting to regulate what he can and put his faith in the remainder.

“Financially, I don’t have a solution….It’s out of the realm of something I can just pay for…[But what I can do] is show up for my family daily. I can do this,” he said. “I promise I’ll show up for my family each day…I dress up like I’m going to work daily and I don’t actually have a job. I’m busier now daily than I ever was after I worked.”

He realizes he has no other selection.

“My wife is battling daily. She’s in pain daily, so I do know that my job is to be the one which is regular and positive, and just hold to that,” he said.

And when all of it looks like an excessive amount of to bear, Lesslie goes to the gym and lifts weights.

“My life is exhausting in every realm, so if I can just hold onto the barbell, even three days per week…that’s a win,” he said. “I don’t know through the day if I can carry the load of my life, but I do know when I am going to the gym I can lift the barbell. And if I can do this, and that helps get the entire anger out, so after I come home to my family, I can move with grace,” he added.

And when he comes home from the gym, he feels more hopeful. Hopeful he and his family will get through it, and hopeful his girls will see their mother healthy again.

“We just have hope, and we won’t let go of it…This game isn’t over. We will fight each day,” he said. “This isn’t the tip. It’s a season in our life.”

You can donate to Dobles’ cancer treatments here or support the cause by purchasing Strong as a Mother apparel.