Hi! I’m NICHOL and I am on a quest that I could really use some help with!

This is Lilly. She’s young, full of sass and I really need some help in trying to save her life. About a month ago she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Fortunately it was caught early enough that her vet believes a cure is very possible. But without surgery and chemotherapy, her prognosis is just around 18 months. She’s only about 6 years old.

She had an initial surgery a few weeks ago to remove what her vet suspected was probably just a burst blood vessel on one of her nipples, or maybe an infected scratch.

Sadly, they were wrong. Testing confirmed it was actually cancer and it is very aggressive. But there is some hope. Lilly’s oncologist was shocked about how early they’d been able to catch it because cancer usually doesn't reveal itself in cats until it’s too far spread in their tiny bodies to do anything. The good news is that because they caught it so early, they think she’s got an excellent chance at survival and living a long life, but it is incredibly expensive and requires my sister to move very quickly. Lilly immediately needs a second, more involved surgery to remove two mammary glands, followed by chemotherapy all done with the intention and hope of curing her since it was so early. This is gonna cost about $7000 usd.

Now, Lilly is my sister’s cat and I want to tell you why I want to raise as much as I can for my sister and why it’s so important to me.

Over the past year, my sister has been my biggest supporter through my own stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis/reoccurance last year. Right after I found out, she dropped everything and flew to be with me twice. Once after my gamma knife surgery and again around Christmas. She has supported me financially, emotionally, psychologically and in every way someone can support someone in my situation. She has made sacrifices to be there for me. I can hand on heart say I would not have psychologically survived the past year if my sister had not been brave enough to walk through those dark days with me. She shows up, every single time, no matter what is going on in her own life and she always holds space for me no matter how bleak things get for me.

She and her husband have also been trying to recover from a major life move/event that was outside of their control which hit them extremely hard financially just before Lilly got diagnosed. There is never a good time for cancer, but the timing on this is just extra bad.

So the same monster that came for me, her sister, has now come for Lilly. Needless to say, it all feels particularly cruel. But unlike so many situations with this disease, this one has a clear path forward and that path just desperately needs funding.

If you are an animal lover, if you have ever been loved by a cat or any pet, or you have ever had someone in your life who showed up for you the way my sister shows up for me, please PLEASE consider donating. Anything at all. $5 or $5,000, it genuinely all adds up and it all matters. Every single contribution brings Lilly closer to the life she deserves and saves my sister from being slapped by this disease yet again.

And if you can't donate right now, please share. You never know whose feed this might land on. And hey even if you CAN donate, still please PLEASE share! Many of us have pets, have lost pets and/or have been punched in the gut by cancer. I can’t save my sister from the pain that my own cancer causes her, but I can help save her cat from being taken by it.

Thank you so much!

From me, my sister and from Lilly.

Lilly is currently being treated at Animal Emergency & Specialty Center of Knoxville in Tennessee, USA.