Annette is known as "Mama Bear" to many of our brave young men in the US Marine Corps 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. She assists regularly in helping these young people keep in contact with loved ones when deployed by contacting and working with the Red Cross on their behalf, as well as sending much-coveted protein bars and those pretzels with peanut butter in the middle.

Annette really enjoys being with her family and friends. She loves dogs and being outdoors.  She is a big sports fan and her teams are the Oakland Raiders, LA Kings, and LA Dodgers. 

As a teenager, Annette would make sure she spent time with her neighbor who developed a crippling disease because she didn't want her to be alone. There was a fire in the apartment they lived in and Annette was able to get that same woman who was about 3 times her size out of the building safely.

Annette really enjoys administrative things and helping friends that would rather do hard labor than making a phone call to resolve an issue.  She enjoys giving small business advice around matters of insurance, workers comp, liability, payroll, and tax.  

Annette has volunteered at church to help the needy, at rescue missions, battered women's shelter and anywhere she sees a need.

Annette is a 49-year-old female.  In January of 2014, she was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer. In February of 2014, she began Chemotherapy.  She concluded chemotherapy in June 2014.  July 2014 she underwent a Lumpectomy on the right breast and lymph node removal under the right arm. 

In September 2014 she received radiation therapy. The blood work after these treatments showed no cancer in the blood. There was no cancer in the bloodwork the Oncologist and General MD conducted in 2015, and the following year 2016. The last week of November 2016 she was ill for two days and complained of having a knot in her back right under the area her bra sits.  We massaged it and used some tiger balm topically.  She felt a little better and then complained a few days later that she had a knot in the lower back. 

This continued randomly through the month of December.  The last few weeks of December she started having more pain and needing help in the evenings to do things as she could not walk very well.  In January of 2017 things got worse and she was having to spend a lot of time in bed experiencing shooting pain down the legs and weakness in the legs.

She thought she might have sciatica or piriformis. Around the third week of January, the pain and weakness intensified and I would have to help her get up and down when using the restroom.

Annette saw a chiropractor as she thought it was sciatica.  After 3 weeks of evaluation, the chiropractor told her he needed to refer her to a surgeon or any doctor that could get an MRI done, as he said he had not seen a patient with issues in the legs like hers and it concerned him. 

The shooting pain subsided during the treatment with the chiropractor.  Her regular doctor took one look at the way she was walking and ordered an MRI. The MRI showed lesions.  The following day she did another MRI to get a larger view and they found 6 of the thoracic vertebrae had fractures, more than 10 lesions, and suggestion to do a CT Scan as they could not for sure determine if the lesions were also on the ribs.

Those MRI’s were done last week. This week on Monday she had a PET Scan, and yesterday a MRI of the brain.   The results are just devastating.   Annette has many tumors, most of her pelvis, left femur bone, spine, few ribs, lymph nodes in the lungs but not on the lungs, neck, a couple of small ones in the skull and one in her brain. 

Annette now has stage IV Breast/Bone Cancer.  Just sitting or laying down is extremely painful for Annette. 

Annette has been accepted into the Cancer Center at The Mayo Clinic in Az.  They are a two income family and now they only have one and that is barely there due to her illness. 

They are about to lose their home due to this massive hardship, however, Annette is a fighter and has an amazing, positive attitude.  She wants to win this battle!

Annette's son is a Marine currently in Kuwait getting ready to be deployed into a hot spot on that side of the world.  He is in the infantry.  So as you can see the worry factor is massive on both sides.  The son needs to focus to be safe, and Annette needs to focus on herself to be strong and fight this ugly disease.

The expenses that they have incurred are astronomical and it is about to snowball to an unthinkable number.  Annette has dedicated her life to helping others, from our Military members, Red Cross, Homeless Shelters and battered woman's shelters along with many others.

This ray of sunshine needs to continue to shine as she is not done helping others.  She and her husband Scott are in desperate need of assistance.  Any funds raised will go to the payments of medical bills and just being able to survive.  They are beyond desperate. 

We hope and pray the kindness of the world can see that Annette needs to stay with us all and not leave us as she has too much to offer too many.

The money is needed immediately for the car ride (she is in too much pain to fly)  and stays at The MAYO Clinic is going to put an unbearable hardship no one should have to go through.

The tears of sadness became the tears of joy when word came about MAYO accepting her case.  Her last hospital treated her like an animal.  The details are horrible, however, she now has a fighting chance.

I ask with all of my heart, please help us help Annette beat this ugly disease and allow her to get back in what she loves to do, helping others.