Hello everyone, and thank you for taking the time to visit this page.

Kate and her family would first like to thank the generous donations from their previous GoFundMe page. The outpouring of love and generosity was pivotal in allowing Kate to access the life-saving treatments that have helped her sustain her fight thus far. Kate has made astounding gains in her battle, but her fight is not over.

Here is Kate's story:

Kate is a skilled family therapist, avid skier, hunter, gardener, daughter, wife, and mother to an amazing and vibrant 4-year-old, Maya. She is deeply loved by her friends, family and community in Okotoks, Alberta.

Christmas of 2022, Kate spent 6 weeks visiting the emergency room in extreme pain. She was repeatedly misdiagnosed and sent away until her fierce advocacy for herself finally revealed that her agony was due to a massive tumour. She was rushed for emergency surgery to resect a large portion of her bowel. Kate was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer - a shocking and unusual diagnosis for an otherwise extremely healthy 40-year-old. More devastating yet was the news that this is a particularly aggressive mutation called BRAF v600e with a reputation for a poor prognosis.

Kate has been fighting hard every step of the way - and incredibly, holding her ground. She has reorganized her care team when those in charge of her care had misaligned goals, spends time exhaustively researching treatment options and has found community in those navigating the same diagnosis. In Kate's words, "dying isn't an option. I can't leave Maya."

On top of the full-time job that is being a cancer patient, Kate has also been raising her daughter, maintaining her psychology practice, and holding down her home, friendships, and family. Her community is amazed by her response to this adversity.

Kate has withstood significant surgery, 38 rounds of chemotherapy, and an unimaginable number of invasive and painful procedures. She has been paying out of pocket for holistic approaches including acupuncture, a nutritionist, naturopath, and new ctDNA testing which helps identify residual disease and informs treatment planning. She has also sought second opinions and advocated for aggressive treatment approaches. Incredibly, by the summer of 2023 her scans revealed no evidence of disease.

Most recently, Kate's ctDNA test revealed a sharp increase in evidence of disease. There appears to be lymph nodes impacted by the disease, which Kate has been advocating to tackle surgically for some time. She is now at a pivotal point where staying ahead of this aggressive illness is more important than ever, and she is having to advocate hard for herself to her care team. Despite her ferocious advocacy, asking for referrals to surgeons more willing to work toward remission, and seeking second opinions, she finds herself at a dead end (literally) for care in Canada. The system appears unwilling to support the most hopeful treatment plan, and unwilling to refer her to a care team in Canada that will. Unfortunately, without a referral, Kate will not receive care. In a recent phone call she said to me, "If I stay here, I'm going to die."

Kate and her family have expressed reluctance asking for additional fundraising, as their community has already been so generous. This ask comes from those close to her who profoundly believe in her ability to overcome, and the knowledge that the path forward unfortunately comes at an enormous expense. So, we are asking for your help. Any donation, even $5, will help - especially if we can share this story far and wide. Please send to your friends, family, neighbours, and share publicly where you can. If many are able to provide a small amount of support, it will help Kate and her family immensely. This is a woman the world needs. Let's help get her out of the woods.

In her own words, here is the most recent update from Kate and why she needs this fundraiser:

We are so grateful to our community for their ongoing support. We’ve asked more than once for help, and you’ve listened. Thank you. My little family is so grateful, and my baby has the warmth of her Mom.

As much as it pains me to ask again, here we are.

My July scans were clear. I was hopeful that they would remain that way, but my CTDNA (circulating tumour DNA identified in the bloodstream) came back at 6.44, meaning there was still residual disease we weren’t seeing on the scan. I knew it would come back, and it did. My Oct 1st scan showed 5 enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen.

I travelled to Keck hospital in California to see Dr. Lenz for a second opinion. He’s one of the top G.I. oncologists in the world and he didn’t disappoint. He wrote me six-page letter of recommendation that detailed a treatment plan he was very confident in. He advised that I should have laparoscopy done to determine whether there is disease in the peritoneal cavity we aren’t seeing on my scans. If there is disease, he advised I should be assessed for HIPEC (Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy- a surgery that first removes cancerous tumours, then applies heated chemotherapy drugs directly inside the abdomen to eliminate the remaining cancer cells which are difficult to reach using traditional chemotherapy). In addition to or after HIPEC, he also recommended to have SBRT (Stereotactic body radiation therapy, a cancer treatment that delivers extremely precise, very intense doses of radiation to cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue). He had a variety of other suggestions for systemic treatment should I need them.

I came home excited; we had a plan, and a good one. It made logical sense- fully assess your patient’s disease prior to treating them. Then action, based on a thorough assessment (right treatment, right time, right patient, right dose- basically medicine 101). I finally felt heard, and had a plan aligned with what I’ve advocated for all along.

My oncologist agreed to the plan, as did my surgeon and the radiation oncologist, albeit begrudgingly (he made a point to tell me, “We don’t twist arms in Alberta”).

Then things got ugly, and really scary.

My surgeon told me to book some time off chemo and Avastin (a tumor-starving therapy), which I organized with the oncologist. I started to wonder why I hadn’t heard back about a date for my surgery, so I followed up, and followed up, and followed up. In a nutshell, they quietly deemed this procedure “unnecessary” after giving me the green light- but didn’t tell anyone. In a similar vein, the radiation oncologist sent me an email saying we should wait. I responded with scientific evidence, Dr. Lenz’s recommendations (again) and a heartfelt plea. He hasn’t emailed me back. I’ve been waiting for radiation for a year, I don’t believe it will ever happen, especially because I FOIPed his notes and they are wildly inaccurate- stating that I was happy to wait and would contact him the future if needed. I am supported by my oncologist, but his hands get tied by this system. I’m grateful for his openness, especially given the climate that he works in.

I feel I have no choice but to seek care elsewhere and action Dr. Lenz’s plan, which I believe will save my life. I wanted to believe in the Canadian system. I really did. It’s been almost 2 years and I’m lucky to be alive, but that much chemo isn’t fun either, and my body is showing its distain. They’ve resigned me to the chemo sailboat; they’ll give me that and let me sail away to my death. I have minimal disease, but I also have an aggressive cancer. The BRAF V600e mutation is known to progress quickly and aggressively. I’ve been lucky that mine seems to behave a little better than others. My only chance at remission lies elsewhere. Dr. Lenz felt I had a good chance of getting there, I know nothing is guaranteed, but I have to try. I just can’t lie down; I’ve worked too hard and been through too much not get more ski seasons, more hunting seasons, more ball games, and to be able to teach Maya all those things. I just can’t imagine her not having me in her life. Danny is an incredible Daddy, but we all need a Mom and my husband deserves to have his wife bugging him on football Sunday and writing honey do lists that he’ll likely never get to