WINDSOR, Colo. (KDVR) — A northern Colorado man with hopes of becoming an oncology nurse hit another roadblock at the start of the year after he said his body was telling him something was wrong.

“I don’t want to give up, I don’t want to do this but I also don’t want to give up,” Chevy McGee, who is currently fighting his fourth round of Hodgkin lymphoma, said Sunday.

McGee said he just wants to be a normal guy but cancer keeps coming back. All of it started back in 2019 when he said he was having symptoms of what he thought was pneumonia.

“They called me and said, ‘yes it’s a mediastinal widening.’ That was right before my chemistry exam, and after going to school for nursing I knew exactly what that was,” McGee said.

He said at first he didn’t believe it, but he started chemotherapy in 2019.

“I finished chemo and said, ‘Oh yeah, the cancer is gone.’ I rang the bell,” McGee said.

But then a few months later, at the end of 2019, the cancer came back.

“It came back again in 2020 and I did more chemo and a stem cell transplant,” McGee said.

He did a stem cell transplant in January 2021 and had high hopes that he would finally be cancer free.

“Then it was good for a year and then I felt something in my armpit,” McGee said.

A trip to the emergency room at the start of 2023 showed McGee’s body was going to have to go through chemotherapy once again.

“There were six lymph nodes inflamed in my armpit,” McGee said. “They did a biopsy – and now here I am starting chemo for the fourth time next week.”

McGee said during these years of touch and go with cancer, he’s continued to work but has had to pause on school at Front Range Community College during treatments.

“I wasn’t able to be in class going through chemo. Chemo brain is a real thing, I couldn’t remember anything,” McGee said.

Now back in school, he’s just a week shy of taking his HESI exam, a test required for him to pass to get into a nursing program. His test is scheduled for Friday of next week, the day after he starts his fourth round of chemo.

He said he still plans on taking the test, that way when he finishes up chemo and an allogeneic stem cell transplant he can get into a nursing program. McGee’s brother will hopefully be a match for the allogeneic stem cell transplant. He will be in the hospital for at least four weeks.

“When all this stuff came up I knew right away what type of nurse I wanted to be, an oncology nurse, and help other cancer patients,” McGee said.

McGee said he’s exhausted but not giving up the fight and remaining hopeful going into the next round.

“I can tell my body is losing a lot of energy from everything going on inside,” McGee said.  

He has started a GoFundMe to help cover a variety of costs. If you’d like to donate you can do so here.

“My parents have pretty good insurance but our out-of-pocket maximum for an individual is $6,850, not to mention all the time missed from work for chemotherapy and during the transplant. I worked during all of my other treatments and hope to do so again but when I’m in the hospital that won’t be possible,” McGee posted on the GoFundMe.