Amanda fights non-hodgkins lymphoma

Amanda Fights Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

 
Amanda Willis, a 35 year old native of Lewisburg, TN and now a resident of Murfreesboro, TN was diagnosed with Stage I Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in June 2018. 

Lymphoma is a Blood Cancer that begins in the lymphatic system and can aggressively move to other organs as it grows in your body. Since it is a blood cancer, there is no way of taking the cancer out. You have to use chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells that are growing throughout your body. 

 Amanda is married to Brad Willis, and is a mother of two children ages 9 and 5 years old. 

She loves to be active, spend time with her family and enjoy life. She has a strong faith that is keeping her going through this difficult and uncertain time. Amanda is very hopeful that she can be beat this disease and has a great support system that has prayed and loved her already during this journey.

We welcome your donations to help support Amanda and her family through this difficult emotional, physical and financial time. All donations will be given directly to Amanda and her family to be used toward her medical care and expenses. 

 Early this summer, Amanda found a swollen painless lymph node in her neck and went to her primary doctor to have it looked at. She then was sent for a CT scan which showed a mass that was not able to be clearly identified. Amanda was then sent to have a biopsy of the mass and it came back abnormal. The doctors at that point decided to remove it and test the entire mass/lymph node by surgery. A week later she was called in to be told she had a form of lymphoma and would need to begin chemotherapy. 

 At that point she went through a series of tests that included a bone marrow biopsy, a biopsy of the stomach and colon, genetic testing, 3 different cancer specialists, and numerous bloodwork. 

Finally it was determined that she had Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma localized to her neck area. 

Amanda will have 3 rounds of Chemotherapy and 5 weeks of daily Radiation therapy at her local clinic over the course of her treatment. 

She will have CT scans between treatments to check to see if any more lymphoma is present in her body. At that point they will determine the plan for the future. She will have to have 3 CT scans per year for the next 5 years, if not longer, to be sure the cancer doe not come back. This journey will be a long-term one to be sure they keep the cancer in remission and Amanda healthy. These tests are expected to cost Amanda thousands of dollars every year. 

  We are grateful for your thoughtfulness, generosity, and prayers through Amanda’s journey.

We know that God has a plan and a purpose for all of this, and we are trusting and praying for a complete healing.