"Everyone's Best Friend," Jessie Merriam, needs your support! Our pal Jessie learned at the end of August that she has breast cancer. Estrogen and progesterone fueled, HERS2-negative breast cancer to be exact. She is taking the news like a champ--learning everything she can about her options for treatment and asking great questions of her medical team.

The first course of treatment will be a double masectomy, now scheduled for October 22nd. Following surgery, she will start three months of chemo. And because her type of cancer is hormone fueled, she will also start a course of hormone therapy following chemo.

Our goal for this fundraiser is to raise enough money for Jessie to live comfortably while she gets better. You all know she's scrappy (aka a multi disciplinary freelance artist/historian/community innovator), tending to work 4-5 different gigs at a time, and we don't think that lifestyle is conducive to healing and rest! Let's give Jessie financial security so she can focus on her own health and mental wellbeing while she takes on this new and daunting challenge. As people give, we will keep increasing the overall goal until we reach a number that feels financially stable for Jessie.

You can learn more about mealtrain and other support things through the Google group messiejerriamcare at googlegroups dot com. To request to join this group, either contact Andrew at andrew.beckerle at gmail dot com, or login to your Google account and navigate to Google Groups, search for ‘messie.jerriam.care’ and request to be added. The Google group will be a place for treatment and status updates as well. Please direct questions to Andrew or Michael via the Google group or directly. This fundraising page will likely only be used to update folks on fundraising activities.

Thank you so much for supporting our dear friend! And feel free to share via social media and/or directly with people who know and love her!