Hi all,

My mother, Sarah Atwood Stiles - Sas, for short - was diagnosed with what is an estimated Stage 2, "triple negative" breast cancer this past week. As one would expect, the last bout of days have been jarring and full of newfound vocabulary, adjustments, and big, scary questions. This week has also been full of silver linings: they caught it early, the frontiers of cancer research are incredible, and my mother is surrounded by a small army of people who love and adore her, and has an invincible spirit to boot.

To paint a clear picture of where we are and where we will continue to be: within 8 hours of hearing the news, my mom was already laughing in my passenger seat wearing a big grin, joking about how excited she is to try on new hairstyles and share her story as a "badass cancer survivor." While she is impossible to break, she can't do this part alone.

To cut to the chase - there is one piece of equipment we are missing on this excursion up and over the mountain: money. We need your help.

We learned today that we are essentially looking at 5 months of no-nonsense chemo, 1 year of immunotherapy, and surgeries to remove the bastard. While the insurance she gets through her work will help cover some of these costs, it will be far from enough. A financial burden like this is the second-to-last thing she needed right now (first being the diagnosis itself). She just purchased her very own home in Damariscotta, one hour from her treatment center in Westbrook, and has been on the ball about making an exceptionally tight income work.

My mom has spent the last 20 years as a single mother, pouring every ounce of spare energy that she had after and before work to provide for myself, my sister Hayley, and the world's happiest cats and dogs. She is remarkable in her caretaking of family and friends. She is an adored grandmother and she finds the time to write and garden and still take care of the cats and dogs. Hayley and I are fortunate enough in our own endeavors to afford to take care of some stressors in mom's world - wifi bills, groceries, car repairs, things like that - but this is not a moment that either of us are equipped for. While we will continue to help our mother out, and will dial that shit up to 11 in these next few months, we're calling upon all of the stars in Sas' sky to help in some way.

Whether that be a donation, a kind note, a call, visit or text, it's up to you. The purpose of this page here is to make sure that the last thing she has to worry about right now is money. If you are tight on funds yourself but would still like to contribute in some way, we're going to need help with the treatment phase itself and the traveling involved there, too. If you'd be willing to add your name to a list of folks who would be able to either visit at treatments or help drive her to/fro, send me a message on here or elsewhere. Hayley and I plan to be on the hook for that stuff, but we anticipate there to be some tough moments.

I felt (and still do feel) that the world sees my mom for who she is, and some benevolent force out there has started bringing her more and more moments of reward, and while it may sound backwards, I think that this can be one of those moments. I think we have the opportunity to show our mom just how much the world and all its critters love her.

To be clear, your money will go towards: Sarah's medical bills, mortgage, car, gas, groceries, utilities, all the things that have the potential to be stressors during the treatment window of about 1 year.

Thank you for considering any contribution. We plan to use this page for updates as well - so do expect photos, jokes, notes, etc. Thank you for reading this and taking in the weight of this news with us all. Above all else, thank you for loving my mom.

Sumner, Hayley, Hildie, Hank, and Baby Kitty