In late 2024, Matty and his primary care provider noted his annual PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test result had increased about 30-percent since the prior year. This led to a series of tests and imaging procedures that confirmed he had an intermediate rating prostate cancer and that his prostate gland was mostly taken over by the cancer. Additional imaging and a gene marker assay suggested that his cancer had not metastasized, nor was it expected to be an aggressive form of prostate cancer. From May through October of 2025, he underwent hormone therapy to drastically lower his testosterone and radiation treatment to destroy cancer cells in the prostate.

Matty's treatment and care involved many supportive aspects beyond the typical hospital care. He remained surrounded by loving and compassionate friends, neighbors, and his dear companion, Caedan. He ate healthy foods and meditated. His emotional and psychological state remained mostly upbeat, primarily by living in present awareness and avoiding narratives of the past and the future. He brought a loving and humorous attitude to his hospital care team, which reflected back to him in the care he received.

In early July, before the radiation had begun, Matty was doing some tree work for a neighbor. During the work, he looked up into a forested hillside and noticed a large bracket mushroom growing on a hemlock tree. He only could see the white underside because the tree was above him. He wondered it if could be a reishi, so he clambered up the ledges and sure enough, it was a bountiful, fresh, bug-free, grand reishi mushroom. "Thank you, Grandmother!" he exclaimed. He knew Earth Mother, Pachymama, had made it for him, for his healing. He was meeting the Universe and Divine Energy had coalesced into this beautiful medicinal fungus. So he made the most intentional, focused medicine, for himself and for you.