Amy's Cancer Doesn’t Care

Updated 12.29.24

Help Amy and Her Family Through the Fight of a Lifetime

Dear friends and supporters,

First and foremost, I want to express my deepest gratitude for all the love, kindness, and support you’ve shown me and my family throughout my cancer journey. Your generosity has been a lifeline, and I can never thank you enough for helping us stay afloat during some of the most challenging times of our lives.

I wanted to take a moment to update you on where we stand now. As many of you know, I’m a two-time survivor of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this year. While I’m continuing to fight and recover, the road has been difficult, and unfortunately, the financial burden has only increased.

One of the biggest setbacks we’ve faced recently is related to my employer. During my treatments, they made promises to rehire me once I was well enough to return to work. I fully trusted these assurances and was counting on returning to work as soon as possible. However, I was devastated to find out, via a text message, that they had not held my position for me as promised. Because I had sought approval to go back to work and was left without a job, my disability payments were cut off.

Now, we have no income at all, and while I’ve been actively searching for new job opportunities, I’m still waiting for approval for unemployment benefits. It’s been a tough and uncertain time for our family, but I am determined to keep fighting and find a way to provide for my children.

Despite these setbacks, I remain hopeful. Your continued support through this GoFundMe campaign has helped us cover the basics like mortgage, utilities, and groceries, and I can’t express how much that has meant to us. We still have a long road ahead, but with your help, I know we can get through this.

Thank you again for standing by us. Your donations, kind words, and prayers have been a source of strength, and I’m so grateful to have each of you in our corner.

With all my love and gratitude,

Amy

Amy’s Cancer Doesn’t Care

For the second time. In 4 years. I have been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). In September 2023 I was overjoyed to be declared cancer free. However, three months later it came back with a vengeance in my brain. Before I ask for your help, I would like to share a small part of my story. I grew up very poor and I have gradually worked my way up to an Executive position from entry level. I have worked for over 30 years to promote affordable housing, I have worked to end homelessness and advocate for individuals and families. During my first bout with cancer, I was able to work and provide for my family. But cancer doesn’t care.

This is the most difficult and humbling thing I have ever had to do, I am asking for your help. I will not be able to work from my hospital bed or from home during the more aggressive and toxic types of treatment. During this treatment, for one month I will need 24 hour constant care. Then,immediately following I am scheduled for a bone marrow transplant. Meaning that, I could be out of work for up to a year. I will qualify for a small disability payment but it will not even cover my rent. Simply put, if I don’t get the treatments I will die. If I get the treatments my family and I will be facing homelessness ourselves.

I am the sole wage earner for my family. I have three awesome children - Silas, Liam and Hazel. Two of my children were adopted out of foster care and all three have special needs. My husband has been unable to work due to health issues of his own, but has been a great stay at home dad taking care of all of us. Now all of our lives are in jeopardy. But cancer doesn’t care.

I work for a great organization who has been very good to me, but it has limitations as to what disability covers. I will not be able to work during this yearlong process. Because my cancer is in my brain and spinal fluid I need to have the CAR T Cell therapy and bone marrow transplant. These are my only options for survival. The CAR T Cell therapy, which costs upward of $450,000 is a precursor to a Bone Marrow transplant, which averages $192,000. The health insurance copays are in the thousands of dollars. This will all be done in a span of under 4 months, but it means that I cannot work. Yes, I have an amazing organization that I am extremely grateful for that has amazing insurance that is helping bear the brunt of the medical expenses, but not all of it. And if I can’t work, I can’t pay the bills. I will not have the means to provide for myself during recovery, or for my family. But Cancer doesn’t care.

With my “benefits”, I do get short term disability, but it has a cap which equals 11% of my income. I still have to pay my insurance premiums to keep my medical coverage. This means that my monthly net income will be reduced to only $1837 per month, which will not even cover my rent or any of the other expenses such as car insurance, car payments, transportation, food, utilities, and more. (In Denver the average cost of a 1 bedroom apartment is $1675 per month to put this into perspective. But I need a home for a family of five.) We currently live within our means based on my working income.

As a person that has worked my entire life to prevent homelessness, now I am facing it. Disgusting, isn’t it? You see, the normal 50% short term disability coverage does not apply because I make too much money, and our company has a cap on the benefit payout. Because my normal income is too high, I don’t qualify for any additional benefits or social security because it may or may not be a long term unemployment situation, and I make too much money to qualify for any other assistance. I make too much money, so I will have no money. But cancer doesn’t care.

The kicker is that I want to work. I am currently in the ICU right now as I write this, and I put in a full day’s work. Unfortunately, the treatments that I need to keep me alive will not allow me to work even remotely due to the dangers and physical toll on my body. I have the social workers here at the hospital helping me look for grants and other opportunities for co-pay help, but there is no grant money available. I am going to be in and out of the hospital for the next two years dealing with this, even if I am working, but the medicines, the hospital co-pays, the emergency room visits, and the treatment co-pays are astronomical. But Cancer doesn’t care.

I have never asked for help - ever. Even when I got cancer the first time and my family was overwhelmingly blessed by the outpouring of love with DoorDash cards and food trains from friends and work families, I felt like an imposter, even though I am still eternally grateful. I don’t know how to do this for myself. I am scared. I can’t possibly begin to imagine what will happen if I can’t go back to work. I don’t know what else to do. So, I am going to ask.

I am humbly asking you to help me and my family with any financial donation you can. All of the money we receive will be used to cover medical bills and living expenses like utilities, food, and especially rent. We are selling what items we can - like our second car. We are cutting everything down to nothing where possible. Those that know me know this is killing me. I just want my family to survive until I can be well and go back to work. But Cancer doesn’t care. Our systems don’t care. But, I know YOU CARE. If I have touched your life in any way, please help. If I have given you food for thought about what could happen to you, please help. If you or a family member has experienced what I am going through and know the struggle, please help. Everything helps!

I know not everyone can help me financially, and even if you do, please become my advocate and spread the word to others. Please share my Go Fund me campaign on all of your social media platforms. I promise that I will do everything in my power to honor every gift by not giving up fighting. I will not stop. I am so grateful for you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Information about the treatments I mentioned:

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/immunotherapy/car-t-cell1.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566791/ talks about the cost of CAR T in the US

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9834208/#:~:text=The%20median%20cost%20of%20the,and%20the%20mean%20was%20%24196%2C200. Good article about bone marrow transplants and costs