Amy's Breast Cancer Support

Amy Roderick has had a very rough decade. Several car accidents, a career ending work injury, and multiple medical procedures had her at a loss on what path to take towards a new career and future. She decided that working with students with disabilities was her calling and was accepted into a graduate program at University of Nevada, Reno.  She looked forward to working as a special education teacher.

But during a medical exam on her birthday, that all changed. Her doctor found a suspicious lump that she believed should be looked at further. Testing showed that there were multiple malignant masses and it was determined to be Invasive Ductile Carcinoma. Amy was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the last five weeks of her final semester of the masters program. 

It comes as no surprise, a diagnosis of a deadly disease changed her priorities as well as what she was capable of in the graduate program. Taking a medical leave of absence was her only option in order to put forth all time and resources to battle breast cancer.

Amy was a full time graduate student relying on financial aid to fund her apartment and other living expenses while she got through university. Taking a medical leave in order to address her immediate need for treatment means losing those funds. She was told treatment for breast cancer will likely be  a year or longer.  A period during which it will be very difficult to find and keep employment due to additional targeted treatments, possible additional surgeries and chemotherapy, and the scheduling of it all. She knows that without the tuition assistance and residual aid for living expenses she is in imminent danger of losing her apartment and her future in education.  

Her treatment has begun. At this moment she is recovering from a full mastectomy procedure and doing well. Rounds of chemotherapy are likely in the in the coming months.  As she fights for her life and future, we ask the community, friends and family to help Amy keep her apartment, be able to afford daily expenses and any additional medical costs which we know are coming. Ensuring that Amy is able to maintain her home, her independence, and sense of identity with the help of our donations will leave her in a better position with a stronger, positive mental attitude to get through treatments successfully so that when its all over, she can return to UNR and finish her master's degree. 

Please feel free to share via Facebook and email to all who know and love her. Those who know her would say she has a heart of gold. She is soft spoken, very intelligent, and will do anything to help a friend. School was always her specialty, she has always done well and worked hard and we hate to see it all come to an end, especially like this. Amy Roderick is sure to make the world a better place through the educating and mentoring of students with various disabilities. We want to help her make that a reality. Thank you for reading and considering helping her through and beyond this crisis.