Since her breastcancer diagnosis, the outpouring of well wishes that Felicia has received in such a short time is testament to the considerate, giving, selfless and loyal person that she is. It doesn’t matter which community connects you to Felicia (Life's Little Treasures, Canteen, Cystic Fibrosis, Gardenvale Primary, Star of the Sea, Hawthorn/Geelong footy club etc. etc.) you know she always puts the needs of others before her own. In short, she is a total legend!

 

As a result, you can imagine that when we suggested creating this page to Felicia she was hesitant. But the truth is that Felicia has a big challenge ahead that could stretch for a significant period of time. On Monday, she completes a COVID test and isolates in prep for her surgery on Wednesday, when she'll undergo initial surgery, a mastectomy, to remove one of her breasts. She'll spend 4 nights in hospital, before heading home to recover over the next few weeks. Chemotherapy is likely to follow. To improve her recovery, health and lifestyle, Felicia has set herself a target to lose 20kg before the second (and even larger) surgery where she'll have her breast reconstructed.

 

This journey is likely to be long and challenging and while the prognosis is thankfully good, it will be costly and tiring.

 

In one week since diagnosis, Felicia has incurred out of pocket medical expenses of more than $8000, and this is just the start. Other expenses are coming such as the necessary ongoing hospital and specialist costs, along with items that may comfort or assist her such as $2000 for a wig or $100 for the recommended silk pillowcase to assist during chemo.

 

How you can help Felicia

Felicia has been flooded with offers of support and we want to make sure these offers translate to the assistance she really needs. We have told Felicia if she doesn’t channel everyone’s offers where she needs it, she is going to get 50 bunches of flowers and an abundance of chocolate cakes! So with Felicia‘s permission we've started “Gather My Crew” and “Go Fund Me" pages to provide options to her 'crew'.

 

Gather My Crew is action oriented and allows us to coordinate support for Felicia through things like providing meals, home help, dog walking etc. We'll work with Felicia to understand what they need and how we can help, and we'll post tasks up that you can grab if it suits. We'd love you to be part of Felicia's crew - click here to join . We'll be adding to these regularly as we better understand what support she needs.

 

Go Fund Me allows us to fundraise (ironically) on Felicia's behalf and the funds will go towards things like:

• general cancer/chemo related expenses

• a personal trainer for a month to get her started

• a cleaner and/or laundry service to lighten the load

• Uber Eats (or similar) to allow for the occasional reprieve

• Other unforeseen expenses.

 

If you'd like to give her a kickstart by ensuring she is able to buy what she needs, when she needs it, please consider donating. We don't know how long Felicia's journey will be, so we're planning for the long haul. If, in true Felicia style, she smashes this in record time, any excess funds will be donated to her charity Life’s Little Treasures and/or used for a celebration that you'll all be part of.

 

The important small print

Please help Felicia in her quest to drop 20kgs, by NOT dropping off chocolates or cakes or any unhealthy snacks or meals. Please ensure any food you cook/deliver is predominantly healthy and remember Ollie is allergic to nuts, Kiwi and pomegranate. Also, as much as she likes visitors, give her time to rest and recuperate so she can get back onto the dance floor as quickly as possible.

 

Thanks to each and every one of you for your kind and incredible support so far. She's got this and we're right beside her. As Helen Keller said “Alone we can do so little: Together we can do so much!"