Colleen Brooks the fight of her life

Hi, my name is Robin Hauger and I am setting this fundraiser up on behalf of the Colleen Brooks family.

As you all know Colleen isn't one to ask for help or to reach out to anyone. She is always willing to help all of us and it took some time to convince her to allow me to send this GOFUNDME out on her behalf. Her story goes back quite some time ago but I want to start at the beginning.

The past year the Brooks' family has endured allot especially during the COVID shutdowns. Colleen's hair salon was completely shut down and she spent that time unable to work at all. In April, when we were finally able to get back to some sense of normal Colleen had a stroke. She was working at the time and she lost feeling on the right side of her body and had face drooping. Colleen would not let Vicki call the ambulance so Vicki called Colleen's mom and she brought her to the ER.

She was then transferred by ambulance to Sioux Falls where they determined several critical issues;

1) They found a tumor in her brain 2cm X 2cm. Colleen named her tumor Fred.

2) They found a hole in her heart

At the time of her trip to Sioux Falls Colleen was awake and alert and seemed to be back to normal however the doctors didn't know for sure at that point if she had a stroke or a seizure. After a couple days she was allowed to go home. She had to take some big time drugs and was told she had no restrictions EXCEPT they said she cannot drive for 6 months. SHE CANNOT DRIVE! They also said she would only be able to work part time. PART TIME! She lives in Milroy and works in Marshall so this meant giving up her independence and as we all know this has been super hard for our friend. She has only reached out to her family to drive her and she has not asked for help from anyone else. Also, Fred, her tumor, was determined to be non cancerous.

As Colleen continued to doctor it was found that she now has 4 more tumors in her brain. These are not cancerous tumors but the concern is they are growing and increasing in number quite quickly. The new tumors are cavernomas which are clusters of blood vessels which at anytime could bleed and hemorrhage. They now ALL have names. (Thelma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby and don't forget, Fred.)

Colleen then had a heart procedure in June and they found that she in fact has a hole in her heart and it needs to be addressed first. She may have been born with this heart issue however since it is causing problems they will be scheduling her for heart surgery on 7/19/21.

After they figure out the heart issues they will then address the tumors in her brain.

Either of these health issues would be a lot for one person to deal with but now there are multiple problems. Let's help our friend Colleen and her family. Since she has only been able to work part time since April this has taken a big toll on her family's finances. After surgery there will be a significant amount of time that she will need to recover and she will not be able to work at all.

Please if you can find it in your heart to donate to the Brooks Family they would really appreciate it. Any amount will help. Colleen could also use many prayers. If you can't help financially please consider praying for her or sharing this GOFUNDME for her health and recovery. Every prayer or share helps!

Thank you so much for your time in reading all of this. I will keep you updated on her progress.