Support Emily's Fight Against Cancer

Emily Valentine is the friend who looks after everyone else, she is a caretaker to the core. Right now she and her family could use some of the caretaking!

Emily along with her partner Craig, have three children. Things were already tough this year when they found out they would have to move from their home of over a decade when they received news that no one expects to hear. In Emily’s words:

“The beginning of a plot twist I didn’t see coming.

This first pic is me smiling in a hospital gown at my very first mammogram ever, expecting to be told all was clear—because no one in my family has ever had cancer, at least to my knowledge. I really thought I’d be in and out with a clean bill of health and maybe a matcha.

But instead…

Mammogram looked “suspicious”

Ultrasound also looked “suspicious”

Biopsy confirmed: breast cancer

So here we are.

I’ll spare you the medical novel (for now) and give the highlight reel of what’s ahead:

June 6 and 11: Pre-op appointments at UCSF

June 12: Surgery #1 – they’ll remove the tumor and surrounding tissue, remove and check a few lymph nodes, and do a breast lift (a bright side I didn’t expect to have to think about).

Then I’ll heal for a few months while going through chemo, which I truly did not want to even consider, but now it’s my reality.

Once I’m through all that, I’ll have a bilateral mastectomy (yes, both breasts) and reconstruction—due to a high-risk Oncotype DX score, which indicates a higher chance of recurrence and made this the clearest choice for me

This plan might shift depending on what the lymph nodes show, or how my body handles chemo, but this is the current game plan. And it’s a lot. Especially as I am going out on disability this week, we just moved, and the kids are changing schools.

If you’re used to seeing me post baseball or theatre pics, this is…a bit heavier. But I wanted to share this with all the people I care about—and who care about me—even if we don’t talk all the time. You matter to me.

I’m still smiling (sometimes), still cracking jokes (usually), and still very much me. I’ll be sharing updates here so I don’t have to copy/paste across 40 text threads—but mostly, this post is just to say: this is happening. I have cancer. And I’m going to be ok.”

Emily and Craig could use help to keep a sense of normalcy for the kids, fill in the gaps from time off work, added food expenses associated with travel, as well as accommodations for out of area appointments. If you can -please contribute, if you can’t - please share! Meanwhile send all the positive energy, prayers, warm wishes to Emily and the whole family.