- Kayden Petersen-Craig, battling stage 4 cancer, receives community support for treatment.
- He previously owned Cafe Villa Bella, offering free lunches and a Pay It Forward program.
- Diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, he urges kindness and health vigilance, grateful for ongoing support.
MURRAY — From a hospital bed at Intermountain Medical Center, Kayden Petersen-Craig is reflecting on some of the most important pieces of his life.
"My daughter's the best gift of my life," he said, as his eyes started to tear up. "There's a book that my husband read to her called 'Daddy's Cancer Dragon,' and she just says, 'I want daddy's cancer dragon to go away.'"
But in the fight of his life, he's said the kindness he tried to show others in life is being returned to him.
"I've never expected anything in return," Petersen-Craig said. "And it's just very humbling to see the community starting to come and support me as well."
He said family and friends keep coming out of the woodwork with offers of help. Recently, a friend started a *fundraiser to help his family cover the expensive costs of the chemotherapy treatments he's going through. That kindness may be coming in part as a result of how Petersen-Craig has lived his life.
As the owner of Cafe Villa Bella in Ogden during the pandemic, he offered free sack school lunches for kids, even as his business struggled. He later offered a Pay It Forward program, where customers could buy an extra meal, leaving a ticket on the wall for anyone in need to pick up.
Petersen-Craig got out of the restaurant business due to struggles from the pandemic shortly afterwards.
"My grandmother said 'always give back,'" Petersen-Craig said. "But it's so hard to accept the help. I've always been the one giving the help, and I've never been the one who wanted to receive the help."
Petersen-Craig has a stage 4 cancer known as an adenocarcinoma, which has spread to his liver. He had initially fought off the disease. After which, he and his husband, Jared, thought they were in the clear to start a family. They now have a 3-year-old daughter, Kaiyah.
"They told me I was in remission in 2022 after I had a surgery and some chemo," he recalled. "Nine months after she was born, I was re-diagnosed with cancer."
Petersen-Craig said in the most recent prognosis, doctors estimate he has around six months to live. He now urges others to be kind and to pay attention to their body — get help if they don't feel well.
"I didn't ever think that I wouldn't be around for my daughter's high school graduation or her wedding, and now they're telling me I don't have very much more time," he said.
Petersen-Craig added that he's grateful to have people around him who are working to get him the best help possible from family and friends — to medical staff.
"Everybody at Intermountain Hospital has been wonderful," he explained. "The nurses are amazing. The cancer floor is amazing. Everybody is just so genuine and kind."
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