My name is Shelby. I’m a 31 year old single sole support parent of my two wonderful daughters, Aubrea (9) and Holden (6).

The past year has been turbulent for us with my own mental and physical health impacting my ability to function and provide for them, from being the mom they deserve and that I want to be once again.

On Monday June 27, 2022 my mom finally convinced me to go to emergency services at my local hospital for a terrible unrelenting migraine that didn’t feel like the usual migraines I get. Based on a battery of initial scans it was determined that the optic neuritis that had stolen the central vision of my left eye when I was 7 years old was back, and had taken the rest leaving me completely in that eye.

I was sent by plane to St. Michaels hospital in Toronto to be seen at their MS clinic, an investigative diagnosis

It was there that they informed me that I have a meningioma, a brain tumour, under my left optic nerve, causing the headaches, and the vision loss. The location of it makes it inoperable, but I begin radiation therapy at Sunnybrook on Aug 29, 2022. This means I will be away from my girls for 6 weeks :(

Any donated funds will be for my two daughters. I don’t want my illness to impact their lives more than it has already, both emotionally and physically, but also financially, I am not the provider I was before I got sick.

The funds would also help me with air fare, allowing me to fly up on weekends to visit them or allowing them to fly to visit me, during the six weeks I am in treatment.

I want so badly to get well again and to begin my work again as a psychotherapist helping others find themselves, giving any positive energies back out to the universe that I may receive. But above all, I want to be the mother that I once was to my beautiful girls.

Thank you so so much for your generosity, thoughts, kindness and compassion.

Shelby, Aubrea, & Holden ❤️❤️❤️