Hi, my name is Joshua Higgins and honestly, I never thought I'd have to write something like this. You see, my sister Annie has cancer. Annie just finished her second round of chemo and has another four rounds in front of her. Though we live over a thousand miles apart, I want to help her, so I'm sharing her story. I know that many out there would like to help in any way they can, but how can they help if they don't know about it? Simply sharing this story in your social media feeds is but one way to help if you can't give directly. So thank you for taking the time to read this and helping my sister in her time of need.

Here is her story in her own words:

Hello, my name is Annie Hugie. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved courageous true stories about people using optimism and grit to overcome tremendous difficulties.

Stories like, Rudy & The Pursuit of Happiness have many times encouraged me at different turning points of my life to have faith and press forward.

Little did I know that beginning January of 2023, I would begin my own journey that would require me to apply some of these characteristics of strength to endure through the most difficult challenge of my life to date.

In January, seemingly out of the blue I would experience wide-spread back pain that felt like shards of glass.

At first, intermittently and then as the months went on they grew stronger and stronger. I saw a general practitioner a few times trying to relay just how bad the now nightly pain had been.

Like many things in life, I thought it was transitional and would soon pass in time. However, as time went on the pain was relentless and eventually took over all my daytime activities as well.

After several months of ‘waiting for the pain to pass,’ one night I told Brian, “If this continues for 45 minutes we need to go to the ER, upon which, the ER doctor recommended that I be admitted to the hospital.

Unfortunately, it would be several days before the biopsy came back and there wasn’t much they could do until the diagnosis so I asked to be discharged.

Then, a few days later the oncology nurse said ‘After review of your scans and the biopsy the oncologist wants you to immediately go back to the hospital so they can fast track all the necessary tests that will be needed. “ They emphasized that I needed to have my first dose of chemo at the hospital as soon as possible.

Reluctantly, I packed everything up and headed back to the hospital. Where to my surprise, I was actually grateful to be getting chemo so quickly because it immediately reduced my pain. I never thought I would look forward to something like getting a chemo treatment, but after months of pain it was such a relief to have answers about why the pain was so severe.

Now, here we are still at the beginning of an aggressive Stage 4 Lymphoma diagnosis. Being the positive person I am, I’ve painted quite the rosy picture for myself of how my treatments will go and how I will overcome any obstacles.

I’m not too worried about losing my hair and look at it as an opportunity to rock a short haircut which, I may never have done on my own.

Mostly, I’m just concerned for my husband who is stretched in so many directions, that it’s difficult for him to know whether he should spend time with me or spend more time working.

As much as it pains me to have to ask for help getting through this, we really would deeply appreciate any assistance you could provide at this time.

Medical bills are a huge concern, but I know the Lord will provide all that we need to get through this both emotionally and financially.

I am truly grateful to everyone who has reached out to us, to see how they can help. If you’d like to follow the rest of my cancer journey, I will periodically post updates on how things are progressing.

Love to all.

Brian & Annie