Help Melissa Fight Leukemia

November 2024 Update:

Thank you so much to those of you that donated to my mom’s GoFundMe in 2023 when this AML journey began. Your donations were much needed. She ended up needing a rental near Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center for ten months due to transplant requirements. That combined with co pays and deductibles have wiped it out. After 3 cancelled transplants at FHCRC, her oncologist at Swedish Hospital arranged for her to be transferred to City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. Her transplant is set for the end of December. That means another round of chemo, round 10 of month-long chemo, to keep her disease at bay before they can get her donor to LA.

As I’m sure you can imagine, we are eternally grateful for her insurance but even with that the out-of-pocket costs are unimaginable.

I’m so glad that my mom is such a fighter. It’s hard to explain how someone can get all the way to transplant 3 different times to have the rug pulled out from under her, and yet she is just as fierce as the day she started.

Anything you can give will help. I so appreciate you all supporting in any way that you can.

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My mom, Melissa Tippets, is fighting cancer for the 2nd time in her life. Nobody should face it one time, but here she is facing it again.

Melissa tackled breast cancer (DCIS-Ductal Carcinoma In Situ) head on in 2017. She underwent aggressive surgery and beat it. She has been cancer free for 6 years.

In February of this year, she started having trouble with nausea. Doctors were testing her for food allergies. In April she had severe vertigo that sent her to the ER. It was then that they discovered that she had something much more going on. After weeks of testing, it was confirmed that she had Acute Myelomonocytic Leukemia (AMML).

Her life was changed in that instance. It was a “do not pass go, report to the hospital today” moment. That was on a Thursday and she was in Swedish Hospital in Seattle for inpatient chemo the following Tuesday. She remained there for one month.

My mom will do inpatient chemo for a week at a time until her bone marrow transplant will be performed. She will be inpatient at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for at least a month for the transplant and then required to rent an apartment or Airbnb in Seattle for 4 months to be within 30 min of the hospital along with a required caregiver around the clock.

We are eternally grateful that she has insurance as her care will easily be over a million dollars. I have started this Go Fund Me account to help with her out of pocket maximum (which will go over at least 2 years), her required home rental while maintaining her current home, the additional costs in food, parking, ferry and most importantly the medication costs. Medication alone is estimated to be $10,000 per month out of pocket. My mom is a single income household and as she looks ahead to the transplant, she is overcome with fear about how to make this all happen.

My mom is a fighter. She has attacked this head on and handling it with grace and kindness to everyone that enters her room. Anything that you can give will help her to be able to meet these astronomical expenses. She has lived humbly and doesn’t have a lot of debt or extras but does not know where she will be able to get the funds to cover these monthly expenses. I want nothing more for her than to just be able to fight for her life, not worry about how to pay for next month’s meds.

From the bottom of my heart, I humbly ask that you share this link with friends and family and if possible, in giving (any amount will help). My mom gives freely to every cause in both time and finances. My hope is that will be returned to her in her time of need.

I thank you for your support and may God bless you and your family!

Meghan