The Man, the Myth, the Legend.
Andrew, also known as DMAN to those who knew him, was a fun-loving guy and always the life of the party. Because of his larger-than-life personality and amazing sense of humor, he had an impact on everyone he met - whether he knew them for 20 years or 5 minutes. He loved his wife, his family, his friends, sports and music. He was a die-hard New York Jets and Atlanta Braves fan and loved the WWE. While he was in college, he even hosted both a Billy Joel radio show and a sports talk radio show.
At the age of 35, Andrew’s life was at an all time high. In May 2019, Andrew married Keri, the love of his life. But while on his honeymoon in Hawaii, his life would change forever. Andrew started having some chest pain that he thought was just heartburn. After going to the urgent care, he was taken to the ER where they discovered that he had some fluid around his heart. They gave him some medication, kept him a few days for observation and then he was able to enjoy the rest of his honeymoon.
In September 2019, Andrew was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer called Cardiac Angiosarcoma. Angiosarcoma is extremely rare - only impacting 1 in one million people each year. Cardiac Angiosarcoma is even more rare, only 1 in 30-40 people across the country will be diagnosed each year.
Reflective of the person he is, he fought everyday like a warrior - never wavering his positive spirit, he cracked jokes until the very end. Surrounded by his loving wife and family, Andrew sadly passed away on November 25, 2021, Thanksgiving Day - his favorite holiday. He was only 37.
To keep Andrew’s spirit alive, Andrew’s wife and family created The Andrew C. DeMarco Foundation. Because Angiosarcoma is so rare, there is very little funding to research this cancer. In turn, because research is so scarce, when one is diagnosed with Angiosarcoma, the outlook is almost always a grim one. We work directly with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, raising money for researchers to utilize for Angiosarcoma specifically, in hopes of one day finding our cure.
Although our mission is to spread awareness and increase funding for MSK, we do an abundance to give back to our communities. Since the birth of our foundation two years ago, we have been able to donate $20,000 to The Dr. Christina Antonescu Research Lab at MSK where Andrew was being treated, awarded $10,000 in scholarships to Plainedge High School seniors (Andrew’s alma mater) who are going into the medical field, provided financial assistance to others who are battling Angiosarcoma, and we even sponsor The Braves through The Plainedge Youth Baseball League.
We are so grateful to our supporters for your continued loyalty! Together, we will continue Andrew’s fight, and keep his memory alive!
