Amanda has cancer - please help her fight it!

This is Amanda Rae Snyder She is turning 30 on October 1st and has been diagnosed with an extremely rare type of cancer – pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNET) and needs your help. Amanda hasn’t had the easiest life – her mom died of a heart attack at the age of 37. Amanda was only 17. Her sister Ashley was 13 and her sister Alyssa was 11. They had each just graduated high school, middle school and elementary school. Amanda understandably struggled a bit. She went to community college but didn’t really have any direction, mostly working waitressing and catering jobs.

 

 

 

 

But Amanda has always been upbeat and funny and caring and smart and has a smile that lights up any room she walks into. She has a larger-than-life personality and is that person everyone wants to be next to at a party. An avid animal lover, Amanda found her passion two years ago when she decided to go to vet tech school. She immediately knew she found her calling. (The average vet tech in California makes about $32,000 a year – it’s not a career you’ll ever get rich from. Vet techs truly do what they do for the love of animals.)

 

 

At end of June, just 3 months shy of graduating, Amanda was taken to the hospital because she was incoherent and unresponsive. Upon her arrival at the hospital, they found her glucose level was 18 (it should be between 90-110). After a CT scan, biopsy, and PET scan she was diagnosed with stage 4 PNET. The tumors are on her pancreas, liver, and stomach. She is currently at the hospital undergoing chemo, radiation, and embolization (laser) treatment on the tumors.

 

She is working her hardest to take her final test from the hospital, but it may not be possible – she may have to take her last semester over.

 

Amanda has been in the hospital for weeks and will remain in the hospital for several more while undergoing treatment. Because of COVID, she cannot have visitors. She is alone and lonely and bored and scared and in a lot of pain from her treatments.

 

The hospital she is in has been wonderful, but because this cancer is so rare they do not have the doctors or the resources she needs to successfully treat this cancer so she can live a productive life. This cancer is incurable, but with the right treatment, she can live her life – really live it. She can finish school and help animals live their lives. She can continue to light up rooms.

 

 

 

 

Amanda has insurance but we need the kind of insurance that will get her into Stanford or UCSF or Cedars-Sinai – the hospitals that have the doctors and the treatments that can help her. The money for this GoFundMe will be used to pay for that insurance and for her medical treatments.

 

A donation of any amount would be truly appreciated. And whether you can give or not, please share Amanda’s story on your social media pages and with your friends and family – we would be so grateful.