Cancer Treatments for Audrey Garro

When Cancer strikes, it can often leave those affected shaken and afraid of the path that lies ahead. For Audrey, her path is a well-beaten path that has lead her back and forth from this battle since the age of 17.  Receiving a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at such an early age and having to undergo radiation and chemotherapy, helped define the person she would grow to be. Her first meaningful job was at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.  Years later, she continued to work to raise money for cancer research and cancer patients at the Stamford Hospital.  Audrey moved on to be the Founder of the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Cancer Center’s “The Walk,” now called “Hope in Motion.”

Little did she know, the hope she actually put in motion, would be for herself when after major surgery in March of 2017 the doctors diagnosed her with Stage 3 Colorectal Cancer.  Through surgery, recovery and many consultations with Sloan Kettering, the decision was made to undergo chemotherapy yet again to prevent the cancer with a 70% chance or recurrence from returning.

Being unable to continue her work in the non-profit sector, she will transition to long-term disability in November. The mental and physical hardships she has endured are only further compounded by the financial burdens that she must now carry to continue her chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  The pharmaceutical component for the medications to aid the treatments are astronomical.

Before one of her most recent rounds of radiation, someone asked Audrey “How do you know if it’s working?”  She responded simply by saying, “We don’t…but we have faith and we have science…and we have faith in the caring and competent hospital staff who make the treatment possible.”

Please help us make sure the path that lies ahead for Audrey leads to her road to recovery.