Help Jessica and her family!

Here is Jessica’s story…

Family & friends, our family needs some ideas/help. Sorry for the long post, but we want to be as transparent as possible.

Unfortunately, I've relapsed, meaning the leukemia is back, so the stem cell transplant I received last March in Ottawa has failed. Our family is absolutely devastated. Relapsed acute myeloid leukemia doesn't have a very good survival rate either. My oncologist in Sudbury, Dr. Jani, wants to try a new promising treatment of Vidaza injections (which I've already started) and Venetoclax, that they have tested and are using in the U.S. already with good results. I've looked into this as well and agree that it seems to be my best option for survival.

The problem is that I don't meet certain qualifications for Venetoclax coverage in Canada, so between the manufacturer, the government, and different societies, we have only been able to get the medication cost 70% covered. This still leaves me with $3,000 to $8,000 in medication costs each month. Myself and Dr. Jani's office are currently and will continue to research and contact different organizations, but so far no luck. I could possibly be on this treatment for a while, if it works, and it seems to be my best chance. Time is critical as AML isn't a type of cancer you can wait to treat, so ideally we would start the two drugs together next cycle, in 23 days. I'm currently also in hospital for pneumonia and a staph infection in my blood. The hits just keep coming.

Our question to family and friends is, do you have any ideas for fundraisers to help us pay for these meds?

*We are so very thankful for everyone's generosity when I went for my transplant in Ottawa, that I'm embarrassed to be asking for help again, but we're scared and don't know what else to do. A little boy needs his mommy.