Help Support Muriel "Mouse" Hanson

Muriel, known to most as Mouse, is undergoing a fight for her life, again. She is a loving, single mom to 2 gorgeous girls, ages 6 and 9. She is also helping her mom (and has been for 10 years) to raise her niece and nephew. She is generous with her time, often volunteering in the community, including 4 years volunteering at her daughters’ school from helping with field trips, helping with hot lunches, organizing the brown bag lunch program which gives lunches to kids in need at the school, and she works on the school improvement plan. She often drives neighbours in need to appointments or the grocery store, and just generally helping out whenever she can. In 2009, with a diagnosis of thyroid cancer, Mouse underwent a thyroidectomy which included the removal of 4 lymph nodes. At the time, her first born daughter was 7 months old. In February of 2017, Mouse had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and root repair. This surgery and recovery required that she no put any weight on the leg for 2 months, be in a brace for 4 months and required a lot of physiotherapy. In January of this year, after suffering a bad cold Mouse noticed that her nose was still bothering her. She discovered a small bump on the inside of her nose. On January 22, she went to the local walk-in clinic and was told to Advil to see if it would go away. After two weeks had passed, nothing had improved. In fact, it had gotten worse. Mouse returned to the doctor who simply told her to keep an eye on it for two more weeks and if it still had not improved, to return once more. Another two weeks passed, and still it got worse. She returned to the doctor and was given a 10 day course of antibiotics. The thought was that she had a blocked nasal passage or tear duct. A week later, nothing had improved and Mouse went back to the doctor again. She was given a more aggressive antibiotic and a steroid, which resulted in an allergic reaction that included a rash and difficulty breathing. Returning once more to the medical office, the doctor ordered a rush CT scan. Two days later, the results were back. The conclusion was simply that she had a sinus infection and she was placed on IV antibiotics for 3 days. After that 3 days had passed, nothing had improved and the tiny bump had grown so much it began to change the shape of Mouse’s nose. The doctor called an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist to review the images of the CT scan. The ENT immediately recognized there was a lesion in her nose and wanted to see her right away. Within hours, she was on to the next doctor’s office to have a biopsy done. Two weeks passed, and the results came back that Mouse had cancer, sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC). This is a rare and very aggressive type of cancer originating in the epithelial layer of the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses. Surgery is being planned, but with the nose being such a small area to work in the end result will be total removal of her nose to remove the cancer. Seven weeks of radiation and chemo will follow. Once the cancer is 100% gone, they can work on reconstructing her nose. Going forward, Mouse’s appointments, surgeries and treatments will take place through the BC Cancer agency in Vancouver. Currently, Mouse is living in Squamish, approximately an hour to an hour and a half drive to Vancouver. The cost of gas to and from appointments, parking, medications, and accommodations are already adding up quickly. Please help support this awesome mom, daughter, sister, and friend. Any contribution is greatly appreciated. ****Please note: This campaign is being organized by myself, Janika Ekdahl, a friend of Mouse's for 20 years and her mom, Sue Yates. So that is why you see our names associated with the campaign. We really want to make sure our family member and friend has one less thing to worry about during this very tough fight.