Abby's Angels for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Abby is a mom to young children struggling to recover from her double mastectomy to treat Triple Negative Stage 3b Breast Cancer. You can be an angel for a family that really needs it.

She is currently living with pain and loss of use of function in both hands after a double mastectomy and ovary removal.   This is a devastating situation for Abby, a young mom who desperately wants to be able to use her hands to care for herself and her children as she deals with breast cancer.

How did she get to this situation?  Two years ago Abby gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Although it was a difficult pregnancy for Abby who is a Type 1 Diabetic and was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease, she and her family filled with joy when the baby boy arrived. However, while Abby was winding down nursing baby Hunter, she found a lump in her breast. At first the doctors were passive, saying it was a lump leftover from breastfeeding. As it grew rapidly, Abby realized something wasn’t right. Because of her instinct, she requested extra testing. Unfortunately, when the results arrived…the news was bad. 

Abby was diagnosed with Stage 3B triple-negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease.  It was devastating to her and the family. How could this happen to someone with a brand-new baby? Life changed in a split second for her young family. This became the point where Abby says her brain turned into mashed potatoes. 


Her intense treatment started immediately and was quickly overwhelming. Her doctors assigned 16 chemo sessions to start immediately, followed by a double mastectomy/salpingo-oophorectomy. As chemo progressed Abby became sicker and weak with each passing day. Soon after starting chemo, Abby broke her foot, leaving her in a wheelchair for weeks. She has struggled with both her physical and emotional well-being.  When Abby had a reduced immune system from chemo she was more susceptible to illness and has had to spend time away from her family, as well as have multiple blood transfusions. Some weeks her immune system was so compromised she could not even get chemo.

Then she had her surgeries to remove the cancer and THINGS GOT WORSE.  She came out of surgery with no ability to move her hands and in excruciating pain. She spent three weeks in the hospital due to her hands being damaged and then has endured months of pain management, physical and occupational therapy, additional surgery to repair her nerves and injections to try and increase some function.  While she has had some progress, a year later her hands are still not working fully.

The exhaustion and the feeling of constantly being overwhelmed hit the family quickly. Abby has been battling every day to take care of herself and on top of that two toddlers. Sadly, our mother and father have already passed away and her husband Matt’s parents live out of state and are ill themselves, so Abby and Matt haven’t had the blessing of help from grandparents as she goes through this.  Matt continues to work full-time while taking time off to attend Abby’s appointments and care for the children when they are too sick to attend daycare. He is also exhausted from all of this. Unfortunately, Abby had to stop working during the cancer treatment and now cannot go back because of what happened to her hands. This was difficult for her because she put herself through college and had built a career she was proud of for the past 17 years in the insurance industry.  She misses her job greatly.

Those of you who know Abby and Matt know what a kind and generous family they are. As you can imagine the family’s financial situation quickly changed with this diagnosis. After a more than a year and a half in treatment, Abby and Matt are struggling paying everyday bills. Their income has been reduced but their expenses have increased. This is where we need your help to support this family battling for survival because they still have a long road ahead of them.

Thank you very much. If you are unable to donate your well wishes are welcomed instead. 

Many thanks, 

Anne

PS - As per the Go Fund Me rules, here's some info about the actual logistics of this Go Fund Me.
1. I am Anne Hunter,
2. I'm from Connecticut.
3. Abby Guasp is my sister
4. The funds will be used to pay bills such as rent, buy groceries, pay for babysitting and other daily expenses they need help with as their income has been reduced with Abby not working (and Matt having to take unpaid days as well to take her to chemo, attend hospital meetings etc.) and their expenses have increased with additional medical and childcare needs.
5. I will be withdrawing the donations from Go Fund Me weekly and delivering it to Abby.