Help Fund Natalie's Treatment!
Thank you for visiting our page!
This is the medical fund for Natalie Lopac, a fourteen year old girl from Emerson, New Jersey who has recently been struggling with osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bone. Diagnosed in September 2013 she has endured several surgeries to replace the infected knee, chemotherapy for 9 months and a recurrence in the lungs, brain and other parts of the body requiring more surgeries and further treatment. The goal of this fund is to help pay for Natalie's expanding treatments, some not covered by insurance. A lot of Natalie's treatments will be far away from home and extra costs will be needed for flights and home arrangements. By donating you are contributing to Natalie and her family’s efforts towards living a cancer free life.
Natalie at the 2013 Relay For Life, less than a year before her second cancer.
Natalie walking laps after her lung surgery 2015
Though Natalie has dealt with cancer for over three and a half years now her spirits remain high, sometimes higher than others around her. Playing with friends and living a normal lifestyle isn't really the same but her outlook on life and life around her is changed forever and there are somethings cancer has stolen from her life completely. One irreplaceable part of Natalie cancer had stolen was her right eye, in her earliest stages of life she had cancer in the eye which had to be removed surgically to save her life. The cancer she has been dealing with today is a secondary cancer to the retinoblastoma she had as an infant. Though life with one eye and a fake knee sounds oppressive, Natalie still makes the most of life like collecting many fuzzy bear friends, playing video games, baking cupcakes, and watching Colleen Ballinger on Youtube. Her mother and father ask of your help paying for her expenses and contribution to a better life.
Natalie and her Idol, Colleen Ballinger!! 2016
Natalie and her best friend Jaiden in Central Park 2015
Natalie in the hospital bed with her best bear friend Fluffalufagus (Gus for short). 2013
Natalie, her brother Nick, cousins Eric and Ethan and grandmother Roro. 2013
Afternoon tea at the Plaza with aunt Celine & aunt Cynthia 2013
We’re calling all friends, family and those interested in helping Natalie to kindly participate in our fundraiser. Here is a message from Natalie herself, explaining her journey:
Hi, my name is Natalie and I’m 14 years old. At the age of 8 months old I was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma to the right eye. Retinoblastoma is a rare cancer that usually forms in young children. Almost all children survive this cancer if it's found early, but most have to lose their eye, like me. I had the eye surgery on May 29th 2003, my doctors believed that they had gotten the entire tumor and did not put me through chemotherapy or radiation, and I am very thankful for that. I also got studied for a genetic mutation which gives kids a higher chance to get other cancers in their lifetime and I was the first carrier of this gene in my family. I had been a healthy, normal child till September 9th 2013, I remember going to the city the day before and doing aerial yoga, little did I know the next day I would be on crutches and wasn’t allowed to bend my knee in a brace. The day I went to the doctor was also the first day of school, I went to school for about a half a day and then went to the doctor. This doctor looked at my x-ray and told me that this was osteosarcoma to the right femur bone and that I would need to have a surgery and 9 months of chemotherapy. They put me on crutches and a brace and scheduled a biopsy. When the biopsy came back it was for sure osteosarcoma and I got started on chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I did 4 months of chemotherapy then had a knee replacement, then had 5 more months of chemotherapy. I was healthy again and going back to school after my last day of chemo. I was going to Sloan for my monthly scans and spots on my lungs began to accumulate. The doctors recommended surgery on the lungs and chemotherapy, but last time the chemotherapy didn’t work completely, because of this we did not continue chemotherapy at this time. I had two lung surgeries done in Sloan and then found a clinical trial at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC. I recieved this treatment for about 5 months and according to scans, it did not help my tumors shrink. After this, we found another clinical trial in Miami, Fl. Traveling to Miami and paying for the treatments got even harder with the expencive flights back and forth. This trial required me to get another lung surgery to use the tumor cells and my white blood cells to help my immune system fight back these tumors. This treatment was a series of 6 shots every week for 5 weeks and follow up visits every month. We did this for a while but it did not help once again. We went back to Columbia and explored our few options of treatments that were avalible. My doctors recomended that I get another lung surgery to remove the tumors and then get standard chemotherapy. I received three rounds of chemotherapy and lost my hair once again. This treatment seemed to shrink the tumors, but not to the degree we had hoped for. A few weeks after I started experiencing headaches that were constant, not normal for me so we told our doctor and got an MRI of the brain. this showed 3 tumors in the skull lining of my head. One of these tumors was surgically removed on October 12th and the other two have been radiated on November 14th. I did 2 cryoablasions, a procedure that freezed 2 large nodules in my lungs. I also did a procedure called RFA or radio frequency ablasion on another nodule in my lung. As of January 12th 2017, my doctors found 4 new tumors in my left tibia bone, left femur bone, left thigh muscle and my skull bone. I have traveled to the Cleveland Clinic to a highly recommended doctor and I'm doing chemotherapy and radiation to these new areas. Over in Cleveland, the doctor here looked at my scans and discovered I also have tumors in my shoulder bone and 2 of my back bones. We are looking to do radiation and oral chemotherapy to treat them. Please donate anything you can, my bills will be more expensive now that I have to travel back and forth to Cleveland frequently. I am staying at the Ronald Mcdonald House and the bills for the house are getting expensive. Just thinking about buying groceries and necessary items is getting tougher and tougher. Thank you.
Reach out to Natalie directly!
Instagram: https://instagram.com/natzy_tatzy/
Email: [email redacted]
last day of chemo 2013
And my name is Nick, Natalie’s older brother and author of this page and I thank you for visiting our page again and we hope you can support us in helping Natalie in achieving a cancer free life!
Natalie, Dr. Pepper, Gus and Snuffles
Go Team UberNat! 2013
