My name is Amanda  -  the above picture is of my mother Gayle and her husband Bucky.  Gayle is a loving mother of four, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend to many. 

Less than 2 months ago I received a devastating phone call, on that day - October 20th, I found out my mother had spots on her lungs which needed to be immediately biopsied  to test for cancer. 

Since October, we have found out that my mother has two tumours on her left lung - they will be inoperable to remove.  One of the tumours is resting on the main artery to her heart making it almost unbearable to breathe or even raise her arms above head.  Both tumours have caused her airway to become blocked causing her lung to collapse. After testing and biospy we now know it is a small cell cancer; meaning it is treatable - not cureable.  This type of cancer is very aggressive, the cells are reproducing very quickly.

The past few days my mother has been undergoing chemo treatments, in hopes of shrinking the tumour. She will have to return back to Kelowna to complete the rest of her treatments and will have to stay for up to seven weeks.  The prognosis even after the treatment at most is 2 - 3 years - that is if my mother has a very positive reaction to treatment.  

As you can imagine, this has been very stressful, emotional and scary for my whole family.   My mother had to leave her job and go on medical leave, as any task was very painful. Bucky continues to work, however there are always the day to day bills and living costs that still need to be covered, in addition to these new living arrangements and daily living costs associated with having to continue treatment in Kelowna immediately.
 
If you have been touched by cancer, had family members who have had cancer or know anything about any carcinomas you know that lung cancer is one of the most serious.   Our family has had a lengthy history of cancer - mostly breast cancer it something that is all to familiar - my grandmother, two aunts and now my own mother.  

I am reaching out to all of you in any way, if you can, to assist with raising funds to pay for food, shelter and daily living costs while my mother is away for continued treatment,  I would be extremely grateful.  

We are scared-but we are hopeful, any and all help would be greatly appreciated.  This holiday season has been a rough one and we hope to eleviate some of these additional stresses for my mother and Bucky.  

Thank you all so very much.  

I will continue to update this page and please share!