Iris' Cancer Care Fund Disability
Iris is my mom.
She has had a rare form of cancer for the last FIVE AND A HALF YEARS! She was given a prognosis of 8-months to live at that time... and so she has been on borrowed time since.
She has had cancer pop up in SO MANY PLACES- yet she continues to fight! After the initial location (kidney, stomach, uriter) it mastetised in her lungs (18 spots), in her stomach and uterus (removal of spot in uterus and chemo for the lungs and stomach), it went into her leg- just like how Raymonds bone cancer started (she had the mass removed), in 2016 it went into her lymph nodes which then it spread back to her lungs, her neck, her stomach, her intestines and now in her pancreas. So she has been through the ringer with cancer so far- and yet she fights!
Earlier this year, my youngest sibiling, Iris' youngest child died of Osteosaracoma ("normal cancer"). He passed away on February 16th 2017 at 4:13AM, at home surrounded by some of his loved ones. As you can imagine, it is hard to bury someone... let alone your own child.
While Iris has been undergoing treatmet (with Raymond at times, and at other times needing to stop her own treatment to take care of Raymonds treatent) which is currently a combination of 3 chemos and an immunotherepy. The ENTIRE time she has undergone treatment (including the initial removal of her kidney, uriter and 10% of her stomach which had the initial leiomayosaracoma) she has worked FULL TIME. She takes minimal time off from work as a pulmonologiest nurse in a private practice office. She supports herself and son Dean Jr who is 17 years old and planning on going to nursing school.
So the details: She needs to go on disability so that she can focus solely on her chemo treatments. Her oncologiest wants to give her the maximum possible dosages to try and kill it all however it will take her resting when not receiving treatments for it to work without killing her.
Sadly, she cannot afford to stop working full-time to focus on her cancer care and her own health. She supports herself and her now one son without any assistance from the state nor any assistance from child support or any other support systems. She will never ask for help- she will always make it because she is a survivor....
But she needs the opportunity to truly survive now. She needs to stay on top of her care as her now youngest is only 17 years old and still needs mom- just like I still need my mom at 35 years old... and so does my 3 younger sisters.
The chemos she is taking is killing the cancer as fast as it is growing. So no changes are taking place for as much she is enduring, the sickness she has and the pain of chemo... can you imagine how frusterating and soul crushing that can be?
Iris is the most caring, compassionate, kindest and loving woman I have ever known. She is a fighter- she is strong. She works hard and has never accepted less than giving her best to everyone she knows. If you know her, you call her "Betty" as that is how she prefers to be known. And if you know her that well, then you will love her as she is an AMAZING person.
She is a mother of 6 children- 4 girls and 2 boys. Though the passing of Raymond Webster (our youngest) has left a hole in the families heart.
Please, if you can, help me raise enough money to help her to go on disability so that she can beat this cancer! She needs to have the opportunity to care for her cancer now. She had to fight her cancer and help Raymond fight his... even stopping her own treatment.
Thank you for caring for Iris. Please share Iris' story with as many people as you can so that we can try and help show her that we care about her. And that nobody should have to go through so much pain to only go so far... to be in such a position where its work and be able to afford to live only to have her life cut short by cancer OR take the time to fight for your life so you can live cancer free.
