Brittany's Battle

Brittany’ s Battle – Medical Expenses – Our Goal: $50,000  

Dear Friends and Family,

 

The beautiful daughter of our dear friends Jorge and Sharon Tapia has been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Bulk disease, a type of cancer that attacks the immune system and limits the body’s ability to fight infections.

 

Brittany is an eighteen-year-old girl who hopes one day to be a teacher.   Ever since she was a little girl, Brittany would come to the school where her mother and I both work and help us in our rooms.  She would sit and read to the young children in our classes and mark stacks of papers on our desks with the speed and efficiency of a seasoned teacher.  All of those who saw Brittany’s natural and gentle way with the children knew that her dream of being a teacher would one day be a reality.  

 

Unfortunately, life had other plans for Brittany.  While most kids were unpacking their suitcases for their first semester at college, a confident and determined Brittany was doing the same but at the Goryeb Children's Hospital in Morristown, NJ for the first of many rounds of chemotherapy in an attempt to kill the cancerous cells responsible for her deteriorating health.

 

In the middle of her senior year of high school Brittany started to experience a dramatic change in her health.  Often, Brittany would come home from school complaining of feeling sick and fatigued.  What started off as flu like symptoms quickly developed into high fevers and fluid retention, which prompted numerous trips to the emergency room. After weeks in the hospital, both Brittany’s doctors and parents were baffled by the declining state of her health.  As a result, one of her doctors ordered a test to check her kidneys.  By this point her body had retained almost 40lbs of fluid.  This test finally gave Brittany and her family an answer.  Brittany was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, a destructive kidney disease that causes her body to swell and retain protein in her urine. The most exciting part of her high school experience turned out to be many months of hospital stays in an attempt to manage the symptoms of her disease. Brittany missed the entire 3rd and 4th semesters of her senior year.  Through all of this Brittany, a strong and determined young lady, caught up on all of her missed school work and graduated from high school.  Therefore, after 8 long months in and out of the hospital and attending doctors’ appointments, things started to look brighter for Brittany.  She was no longer retaining fluid and doctors were starting to lower her dosage of medicine. She was finally starting to enjoy what was left of summer and starting college. 

 

However, a dramatic turn of events occurred when Brittany experienced new symptoms, which included chronic fevers, shortness of breath and a fatigue that made it impossible for her to participate in every day life. These new and worsened symptoms led her doctors to order a chest x-Ray from which the discovery of a large cancerous mass was lodged in the middle of her chest and was growing into the lymph nodes. As a result, Brittany will now have to undergo 12 weeks of chemotherapy to fight Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Bulk disease.

 

 

We are reaching out so that Brittany and her family know that they are not alone.  We are organizing this fund so that any day-to-day or long-term hardships placed upon this family battling childhood cancer can be one less burden they have to assume.  Please help this brave and determined young lady fight what is considered to be a parent’s worst nightmare.  No child should have to suffer the physical and emotional pains of cancer when they are supposed to begin the most exciting chapter of their life.  Help Brittany regain the hope she once had of being a teacher. Brittany is loved by so many and I know with the help of others she and her family will forever be grateful. Lets all help her fight this together. Thank you for taking the time to read this and all your generous contributions.

 

Thank you,

Friends and Family of The Tapia Family