“I’m not ready to die yet. My job is to raise my two kids and I’m not going anywhere until I’ve done my job.”

There are two words that best describe Brook Irving-Martz: fierce warrior.

Brook is a mom of two (Olivia, 15 and Matthew 4) from Gig Harbor, WA. She and her sister Kelly have been passionate about horses their whole lives. In 1999, they took a leap of faith and opened their own training facility. Since opening, Kellenbrook Farms has grown into a 32 horse barn that trains some of the top young dressage riders in the nation.

On August 3rd, 2021 Brook went in for an MRI for mysterious back pain but was shocked when doctors told her both her pancreas and liver showed signs of cancer. After multiple tests and biopsies, on Aug 11th Brook was diagnosed with Stage 4 insulinoma neuroendocrine cancer. A rare condition with only 4 cases per 1 million diagnosed in the US each year.

Initially, Brook was told she had less than a year to live. However, doctors now believe with the right treatment and multiple invasive surgeries she will have time, time to see her kids grow, and time to help them flourish.

Brook and her family are facing a long, uphill battle. The chemotherapy drugs, alternative therapies, hospital stays, and a lifetime of surgeries just to keep the cancer at bay is an overwhelming expense.

Brook experiences extreme hypoglycemia as a side effect of the cancer. As a result she is largely bound to her bed and couch, sitting and resting day in and day out. To those of you that know Brook this is like throwing her in jail. She is in and out of the progressive care unit at Tacoma General hospital when the drugs and food cannot sustain her blood sugar. The worst part of this is her beautiful children are left without their mom during this time. Brook is no longer able to work or ride horses. In order to make up for this, Brook and Kelly have had to hire staff to manage the barn and teach lessons. While this adds more than $30,000 per year in added expenses, Brook is functionally without income.

The year ahead is daunting for Brook. On June 23rd she will be having the first of three highly complex, dangerous and invasive surgeries on her liver and pancreas at OHSU. Each time, the recovery is slow and painful requiring at least 10 days of hospitalization and 3 months of at home recovery.

Despite everything she has gone through, Brook's spirit remains strong. Her goal is to find the right treatments, from the right doctors to get the right results. When asked what gives her hope and keeps her fighting she said, “I’m not ready to die yet. My job is to raise my two kids and I’m not going anywhere until I’ve done my job. I wake up every morning grateful to be alive. Words can’t describe how much the outpouring of love, support, and generosity means to me and it brings tears to my eyes. It’s what keeps me fighting. It’s what gives me hope. It’s what keeps me alive.”

Please help us raise $150,000 to support Brook and her family through this challenging year.

Your donation will directly help Brook pay living expenses for her family to be close while she is hospitalized at OHSU, cover her lost income, alternative therapies, supplements, mounting medical bills, meals, house cleaning and other much-needed support services, childcare expenses for Matthew and keeping Olivia’s dressage dreams alive.