A New Eye For Christine

Please Help Fund My Aunt Christine's Orbital Eye Prosthesis 

     In 2012 my aunt Christine was diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of sinus cancer. It started in the sinus right next to her eye and spread upwards through her skull, thank God stopping right before her brain.
     The team of doctors at Virginia Mason hospital asked Christine how aggressive she wanted them to be.  As she was 31 years old, had just been married, bought a house and started her career, she told them to do whatever they could to save her life. Knowing that down the road complications and difficulties from such an aggressive treatment plan were virtually a guarantee, Christy somehow put on a brave smile and did just that!
      In order to save her life, Christy was given two types of chemotherapy and the maximum amount of radiation. In a short amount of time they told her that the results weren't terrific and her best chance was to increase the radiation to twice a day instead of once and to up the dose beyond the maximum amount.  Our prayers were answered, it appeared to be working! After several weeks of radiation, as she was nearing the completion of her chemotherapy,  the surgeons had to do a craniotomy to get the very last of the tumor. In January of 2013 she had beat the odds and was cancer free!
     They call radiation the gift that keeps on giving and  Christy has found out why. In the beginning of 2014 a small hole formed right on the side of her nose, not far from her eye. It kept progressing and eventually grew quite large. Despite the following 15+ surgeries, some of them eleven hours long, the hole was not able to be successfully repaired. 
      On October 11th of this year she had to have her eye removed. Through it all she has never complained and never felt sorry for herself. My aunt is so beautiful and I know how hard these last 5 years have been. Every time she is out and about she has to deal with kids staring and whispering, adults always giving a second look.
      Christy knows just how blessed she is to be alive and while she is dissappointed to have lost her eye, she is so excited to get a prosthetic. We all know that she is as beautiful now as she always has been, but now we have the chance to help her get a really good prosthetic. Insurance companies are not as sympathetic as we are and as the prosthetics these days look so good that you can't tell which one is fake and which is real, they are very expensive.
     Through all of this Christy has continued working. For example, her eye was removed Wednesday and on Monday morning, with a smile on her face, she was starting her work week. She has had unimaginably high medical bills. I'm asking others to help me and my family accomplish what we cannot alone and give Christy the best prosthetic she can get. We're hoping to raise $8,500 to help her get it.
 
     We thank you for any and all of your contributions.