Join Mom's Fight Against Cancer

Hi all, I’m creating this fundraiser in place of my mother. I’d like to start off by saying I appreciate you just being here and taking the time to read about my mom’s journey with cancer. Of course our starting goal won’t cover even a fourth of what this whole process is going to take but anything helps. A quick summary of what her treatments are looking like currently.

Edit: As of 6/7, she has been hospitalized and treatments put on hold due to complications of her treatment. She is currently getting a feeding tube put in.

Treatment for radiation is 1.5 hour drive away, 5x a week (33 treatments).

Chemotherapy is 1x a week for 8 hours straight for 6-8 weeks. The drive is an hour away.

On top of the cancer treatments, She has a slew of other doctor appointments over an hour drive away for her pre-existing autoimmune diseases, disk disease and speech therapy (from the partial glossectomy).

Here is her journey of squamous cell carcinoma (head, neck, & oral).

Her first occurrence was October 2021. Biopsy showed Stage 1 SSC on right side of tongue. Removed by partial glossectomy.

Second occurrence, small lump started to appear on right side of throat around mid summer 2022. Around this time, my grandpa became severely ill so she moved in with him to take care of him.

In February 2023 she was notified that it was her final day of employment after 13 years of being with the company because of the elimination of her position. Throughout this time with no income and making her father her priority, the lump in her neck continued to grow. After her father passed in October 2023, she moved and got to a point where she was able get government insurance and finally made an appointment with her surgeon to have a biopsy. Unfortunately, the biopsy came back positive. Following more tests, surgery was scheduled for a right neck dissection & another partial glossectomy & sent to oncology teams.

Her staging is Recurrent pN3b SCC; therefore jumpstarted her journey.

Although it’s hard to not allow these things to give us a bleak outlook on life, especially when it feels like we’re surrounded by this awful disease and our loved ones suffer because of it, we choose to hold onto hope and live everyday embodying love and kindness.

Thank you Jim and Lena for always being there for my mom, we value and cherish your friendship more than anything. A shout out to the nurses and techs on floor 4 at Summit Hospital for your hardwork and kindness. Lastly, thank you Don for all that you do and making sure she gets to all of her appointments, I'm grateful she has you.