Courtney's Memorial & Cancer Research

My name is Lindsay Jorgensen. I am Courtney Harmon's adopted mother. She got sick about 6 months ago. It started with headaches/migraines. Then came the throwing up and not being able to keep anything down. Then muscle weakness, then the balance went. She walked into the hospital under her own power on 11/19. Within 2-3 days she couldn't even walk with the walker anymore. Then the paralysis starting kicking in and it just got so much worse so very quickly. The last 3+ weeks she could only move her head. Last week she could move nothing. A few days before she passed she asked me to make it stop. " Help me. I hurt" was all she could say. I asked what she wanted and she said "i can't" don't want to do this anymore." It took her 5 minutes to get that out. So I turned off the machines, stopped the chemo and just kept her comfortable. She couldn't really talk at all at this point. 2-3 words at a time and it time EVERYTHING she had to say them. She looked at me and said "You be ok?" I lied and told her I'd be fine. She said I love you. I held her hand and told her it was ok to go. She never woke up after that. Friends from her work are the only reason I made it through this so thank you guys... You know who you are!

I was with her every step of the way. From the first headache to the last breathe, she was never alone. I held her hand, told her she was loved and that she could go. She wouldn't leave me until I told her I would be ok. That's who Courtney was.

She had a very, very rare cancer that was very aggressive. They will be collecting her cancer cells to research them here in Morgantown, West Virginia. The oncologist that she had is actually researching the type of cancer that she had, so we will be donating all of her cancer cells to the study. I know that if Courtney could save anyone any sort of sickness or pain then there's nothing she wouldn't do to make that happen, so in her stead I'm going to do everything that I can to make that happen for her. She wants a purple urn and come hell or high water she will get it!