Nancy Wheeler's Cancer Fight!
Donation protected
Some people come and go in our lives, leaving small traces behind them. Others leave indelible impressions, shaping people's lives with their spirit, their resiliency, and their genuine love for those around them. Nancy Wheeler is one of the latter types: to know her is to adore her fully and completely. Her wit, intelligence, spirit, and generosity, coupled with her beautiful blue eyes and unforgettable smile, make her the kind of woman you cannot ever forget. Nancy's husband Fred noticed these things in her immediately after meeting her, and instantly realized she was "the one". The two of them are indeed soul mates. They both cared for Fred's dying father in 2010; Nancy exhibited absolute patience, concern, and devotion while helping Fred make his dad as comfortable as possible in his last months. It takes a special kind of person to care for someone who is ill and dying, but Nancy is much more than a special kind of person.
I'm Melissa Moran, and I am writing to ask for your help for my amazing sister in law Nancy, the love of my brother's life, my daughter's second mom, and the absolute epitome of joy and generosity and love to all who know her. Nancy Wheeler joined my family when my brother had the good sense and even better fortune to bring her with him back home to California in 2008 after completing law school together, and their wedding in 2012 was full of love and light. It was the best day ever. Ever since I met Nance, she has shown me what strength is. Despite being diagnosed with cancer in 2014, she has literally never complained even once. She lives with daily pain, unimaginable to those of us who are lucky enough not to have cancer. The cancer took from her the ability to carry children, yet she has never once been bitter about it, and has always rejoiced in her friends' and family's joy when one of them has had a child. In a cruel twist, she and my brother would make the most amazing parents ever, which I have seen as I have watched them with my little girl since she was born. They both volunteer to coach my daughter's football team, and Nancy is at every practice and game no matter how bad she feels or how much pain she is in.
Because of the cancer, Nancy has had to go on disability leave from her work as an attorney at a pro-bono firm which serves low income or homeless veterans. Nancy is the first in line to help anyone, any time. Now she needs our help. Her medical bills have piled up beyond control. For a few months due to a battle with insurance, she and my brother had to pay her chemotherapy costs out of pocket. For the last two years, they have been insistent on not asking for help. Now the time has come when the stress of the illness, the medical costs, and the unpaid bills have started to detrimentally affect Nancy and Fred. I am asking you to help these two people who do so much to help others. We want Nancy to have every available resource to fight this disease and to live a long life. We need her. Not just my family, but this world. Her clients. Her parents and siblings. Her friends. My little girl who idolizes her Aunt Nan Nan. Please help. Every little bit does indeed help, and is more than appreciated.
Please continue reading below to learn more about this incredible woman and her fight for life.
Nancy Wheeler is a wonderful wife, aunt, friend, lawyer, daughter, sister, and person. She was diagnosed in August 2014 with a Neuro-Endocrine Tumor in her uterine-cervix. This diagnosis is rare, and treatment has been extremely difficult for her and her family.
She received a total hysterectomy surgery, which removed the tumor, and then went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In August of 2015, she got an "all-clear" scan, and for a few short months, it seemed that this experience was behind her. Unfortunately, in October, 2015, it was discovered that the cancer had returned, this time with 4 invasive tumors in her abdomen and lymph nodes.
Since then, Nancy has had kidney failures requiring hospitalization, treatments that haven't worked, insurance nightmares, and a slew of setbacks. She was recently admitted to a clinical trial for an immunotherapy treatment - harnessing the body's immune system to fight the cancer - with high hopes of a miracle cure. Nancy learned on July 26th, 2016 that her cancer had spread to her liver, was now Stage 4, and was likely incurable. But she is not ready to give up, and neither is her family!
She, and her family, need your help. This fundraiser is about her, making sure she can afford all the treatments she will need, and to be kept as comfortably as possible as her disease progresses, for better or for worse. She loves travel and being near her family, and living in California it is extremely difficult for her to get crucial family time. Also, medical bills have piled up over the past two years, and Nancy's illness has made her unable to work since December.
Please, any contribution that anyone is in a position to give would be so greatly appreciated. Take a moment watch these videos, view these pictures, and to read on about this amazing woman, who at an age -- 31 -- when most people are settling into parenthood and an enjoyable life, was diagnosed with a terrible, rare disease that has ravaged her body but not her spirit. If you find it in your heart to help, contribute any amount of money you are comfortable with and it will go directly to Nancy and her husband, for her care and comfort.
Nancy was born September 12, 1982, and is from the unbelievably beautiful village of Union Springs, New York. About an hour from Syracuse or Rochester, Union Springs is a small, tight-knit community, where Nancy's mom owns a pizza shop (Gus's) named after her grandfather, Roland (Gus) Gustafson, and where her step-father recently retired from working for the village. Nancy has three brothers and six sisters in a beautiful, blended family. Nancy is also blessed to have a loving, supportive father and stepmother, who have been there for her throughout this process.
Nancy was a Political Science Major at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, New York. She graduated in 2004 with her bachelor's degree. Anyone who knows Nancy knows that she loves politics and debate. She is, put simply, a genius, who loves learning and talking to people about their legal problems. After college, she attended law school at New England School of Law, in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. On the first day of class, she met the man who would become her husband, Fred Peters. Following her graduation from New England Law in 2008, she moved to California to take the most difficult Bar exam in the country. She and her husband passed the bar, and Nancy got a job as a staff attorney at Public Counsel Los Angeles, the largest pro-bono law firm in the nation.
The veterans she helps never pay for the services Nancy and her team provides. These men and women served our country in all the conflicts of the last half-century, from Vietnam to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is on the front line in the fight against the broken V.A. system of administering benefits to wounded veterans. When she was healthy enough to work, she would leave the house before 8 a.m. and frequently return at 10 p.m. Her work is a passion of hers, and she feels she owes her clients, each of them a veteran of our armed services or a family member, her best effort and as much of her time as she can give. In 2013, her project partnered with Elizabeth Dole and her foundation to help the families and caretakers of wounded veterans, in a ceremony pictured below:
Nancy and Fred Peters were married on September 22, 2012, in Watkins Glen, NY, at a beautiful venue overlooking Seneca Lake. The forecast was for rain, and it was pouring early in the day, but the sun came out, dried the grass, and turned it into a gorgeous early fall day.
Since Nancy's diagnosis, she has taken every treatment, every procedure, every snafu with insurance, every hospitalization, every new symptom, completely in stride. She is an extremely proud person, and her pride has prevented her from asking for help, even as her condition worsened, she would not complain about the extreme pain she was experiencing, because she didn't want anyone to worry about her.
Please, show this amazing woman that you care. Nancy and Fred's families have already been so generous and giving with financial help, but it is not enough. Stand up against this terrible, rare disease with a contribution in any amount, and keep checking back for updates on Nancy's condition and our progress. If you've met Nancy, odds are you love her and know what a valuable, incredible person she is. If you haven't met her, trust me, it's your loss; she is simply the most incredible woman in the world, and she needs your help.
Thank you.
--Nancy's husband and family
I'm Melissa Moran, and I am writing to ask for your help for my amazing sister in law Nancy, the love of my brother's life, my daughter's second mom, and the absolute epitome of joy and generosity and love to all who know her. Nancy Wheeler joined my family when my brother had the good sense and even better fortune to bring her with him back home to California in 2008 after completing law school together, and their wedding in 2012 was full of love and light. It was the best day ever. Ever since I met Nance, she has shown me what strength is. Despite being diagnosed with cancer in 2014, she has literally never complained even once. She lives with daily pain, unimaginable to those of us who are lucky enough not to have cancer. The cancer took from her the ability to carry children, yet she has never once been bitter about it, and has always rejoiced in her friends' and family's joy when one of them has had a child. In a cruel twist, she and my brother would make the most amazing parents ever, which I have seen as I have watched them with my little girl since she was born. They both volunteer to coach my daughter's football team, and Nancy is at every practice and game no matter how bad she feels or how much pain she is in.
Because of the cancer, Nancy has had to go on disability leave from her work as an attorney at a pro-bono firm which serves low income or homeless veterans. Nancy is the first in line to help anyone, any time. Now she needs our help. Her medical bills have piled up beyond control. For a few months due to a battle with insurance, she and my brother had to pay her chemotherapy costs out of pocket. For the last two years, they have been insistent on not asking for help. Now the time has come when the stress of the illness, the medical costs, and the unpaid bills have started to detrimentally affect Nancy and Fred. I am asking you to help these two people who do so much to help others. We want Nancy to have every available resource to fight this disease and to live a long life. We need her. Not just my family, but this world. Her clients. Her parents and siblings. Her friends. My little girl who idolizes her Aunt Nan Nan. Please help. Every little bit does indeed help, and is more than appreciated.
Please continue reading below to learn more about this incredible woman and her fight for life.
Nancy Wheeler is a wonderful wife, aunt, friend, lawyer, daughter, sister, and person. She was diagnosed in August 2014 with a Neuro-Endocrine Tumor in her uterine-cervix. This diagnosis is rare, and treatment has been extremely difficult for her and her family.
She received a total hysterectomy surgery, which removed the tumor, and then went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In August of 2015, she got an "all-clear" scan, and for a few short months, it seemed that this experience was behind her. Unfortunately, in October, 2015, it was discovered that the cancer had returned, this time with 4 invasive tumors in her abdomen and lymph nodes.
Since then, Nancy has had kidney failures requiring hospitalization, treatments that haven't worked, insurance nightmares, and a slew of setbacks. She was recently admitted to a clinical trial for an immunotherapy treatment - harnessing the body's immune system to fight the cancer - with high hopes of a miracle cure. Nancy learned on July 26th, 2016 that her cancer had spread to her liver, was now Stage 4, and was likely incurable. But she is not ready to give up, and neither is her family!
She, and her family, need your help. This fundraiser is about her, making sure she can afford all the treatments she will need, and to be kept as comfortably as possible as her disease progresses, for better or for worse. She loves travel and being near her family, and living in California it is extremely difficult for her to get crucial family time. Also, medical bills have piled up over the past two years, and Nancy's illness has made her unable to work since December.
Please, any contribution that anyone is in a position to give would be so greatly appreciated. Take a moment watch these videos, view these pictures, and to read on about this amazing woman, who at an age -- 31 -- when most people are settling into parenthood and an enjoyable life, was diagnosed with a terrible, rare disease that has ravaged her body but not her spirit. If you find it in your heart to help, contribute any amount of money you are comfortable with and it will go directly to Nancy and her husband, for her care and comfort.
Nancy was born September 12, 1982, and is from the unbelievably beautiful village of Union Springs, New York. About an hour from Syracuse or Rochester, Union Springs is a small, tight-knit community, where Nancy's mom owns a pizza shop (Gus's) named after her grandfather, Roland (Gus) Gustafson, and where her step-father recently retired from working for the village. Nancy has three brothers and six sisters in a beautiful, blended family. Nancy is also blessed to have a loving, supportive father and stepmother, who have been there for her throughout this process.
Nancy was a Political Science Major at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, New York. She graduated in 2004 with her bachelor's degree. Anyone who knows Nancy knows that she loves politics and debate. She is, put simply, a genius, who loves learning and talking to people about their legal problems. After college, she attended law school at New England School of Law, in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. On the first day of class, she met the man who would become her husband, Fred Peters. Following her graduation from New England Law in 2008, she moved to California to take the most difficult Bar exam in the country. She and her husband passed the bar, and Nancy got a job as a staff attorney at Public Counsel Los Angeles, the largest pro-bono law firm in the nation.
The veterans she helps never pay for the services Nancy and her team provides. These men and women served our country in all the conflicts of the last half-century, from Vietnam to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is on the front line in the fight against the broken V.A. system of administering benefits to wounded veterans. When she was healthy enough to work, she would leave the house before 8 a.m. and frequently return at 10 p.m. Her work is a passion of hers, and she feels she owes her clients, each of them a veteran of our armed services or a family member, her best effort and as much of her time as she can give. In 2013, her project partnered with Elizabeth Dole and her foundation to help the families and caretakers of wounded veterans, in a ceremony pictured below:
Nancy and Fred Peters were married on September 22, 2012, in Watkins Glen, NY, at a beautiful venue overlooking Seneca Lake. The forecast was for rain, and it was pouring early in the day, but the sun came out, dried the grass, and turned it into a gorgeous early fall day.
Since Nancy's diagnosis, she has taken every treatment, every procedure, every snafu with insurance, every hospitalization, every new symptom, completely in stride. She is an extremely proud person, and her pride has prevented her from asking for help, even as her condition worsened, she would not complain about the extreme pain she was experiencing, because she didn't want anyone to worry about her.
Please, show this amazing woman that you care. Nancy and Fred's families have already been so generous and giving with financial help, but it is not enough. Stand up against this terrible, rare disease with a contribution in any amount, and keep checking back for updates on Nancy's condition and our progress. If you've met Nancy, odds are you love her and know what a valuable, incredible person she is. If you haven't met her, trust me, it's your loss; she is simply the most incredible woman in the world, and she needs your help.
Thank you.
--Nancy's husband and family
Organizer
Fred Scott Peters
Organizer
Long Beach, CA