Embrace the Suck! Help Emily with her cancer.

 

 

During the brutal crucible of Navy SEAL training, instructors often tell students to embrace the suck. Emily White is an endurance swimmer and no stranger to long, cold plunges into the unknown. Embrace the suck has been her motto for the last two decades as she navigated the world of film & TV production. She has a deep love of nature, her family and friends, and always wanting to do the obnoxious activity - wiener dog races anyone - because, why not?! She was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2022, and now she needs our help to navigate these waters.

 

Emily found the lump (aka “Betsy”) in early January. Fast forward several grueling weeks and months of waiting, numerous tests and blood draws, biopsies, visits with her medical team, and a lot of uncertainty, Emily finally has her initial care plan in place. Her initial lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy was on April 6th, and after a few scary setbacks from those surgeries, Emily has been healing at home. She received results from those procedures 14 days later with good and bad news. The good news is that there was no cancer detected in her lymph nodes, the bad news is that her margins were still positive. Having those positive margins meant another surgery on April 29th in hopes of excising all cancer from her breast tissue. After this second surgery, she was informed that there is still about .10mm of cancer in her body. Due to her age, size of the tumor, and her Oncotype DX score, she'll be needing 3-4 months of chemotherapy followed by 6 weeks of radiation then hormone therapy. She'll be receiving an IV chest port on April 17th that she'll have in until all the treatments are finished. Reconstructive surgery will follow in about a year. Regular updates on Em will be on her Caring Bridge site: bridge.org/visit/emilywhite2 

Her medical team describes her as “a 43-year-old female who lives by herself in West Seattle, has a cat who keeps her company.” But we all know her as our little bit sweet, little bit salty friend Emily White, the proud mama of Lady Chunk—who btw, is pretty pissed about being referred to as simply “a cat.”

 

Emily is a woman of many talents. She is a trained chef, a seasoned film & tv producer and writer.

 

 

 

 

Emily is a devoted daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. She is strong, independent, witty, smart, bold, brave, sarcastic and darkly hilarious. She is an incredible athlete, a fierce open-water swimmer who needs her boobs for buoyancy, folks! She has completed the Escape from Alcatraz swim, a circumnavigation of Mercer Island in Lake Washington, and the Portland Bridge Swim to name a few. COVID thwarted her chances of being an English Channel swimmer in 2020 and 2021, but there are plans for more feathers in her swim cap after she kicks cancer’s ass!

 

 

 

 

 

Emily has a deep passion for our environment and a special love for the water and all the life in it. She volunteers with SR3 (Sealife Response, Rehabilitaion and Research) in Des Moines, WA. She has traveled the world searching for incredible swim spots…or sometimes just places to wash some dishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To know her is to love her. Now is the time to show her just how much we love and care for this incredible woman and her ta-tas.

 

Emily needs our financial support. Being a talented and much-sought-after freelancer/sole provider is enviable, but in the face of a medical crisis, it’s a lot less sexy. Emily has had to turn down work since January. Medical insurance premiums are out-of-pocket, and disability insurance is a no-go for the brave-of-heart self-employed.

 

Emily has a mortgage, the Seattle cost-of-living, savings-busting medical expenses, and a very full-figured kitty called Lady Chunk who has become accustomed to a certain lifestyle (which surely no one would deny her.)

 

 

Now is the time to focus on healing, not stress about mounting debt. To eat nourishing foods and regain physical stamina. To lean into the care of her community and do one of the hardest things that an intelligent, successful, independent woman can ever have to do—ask for help. F*^k! This part might be the hardest part.

 

If you can’t help financially and are in the Seattle area, consider going to Emily’s house to help clean, or mow the lawn, or sit and watch a movie with her! Or hire her as a producer! The possibilities are endless.

 

Thank you so much for coming together and supporting this wonderful human being.

 

Please follow along on Emily's Caring Bridge https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilywhite2 for the latest updates on her progress and to find other ways to get involved in her recovery.

You can also help her with her much needed nutrition by making her a delicious meal via Meal Train: https://mealtrain.com/706rrn

 

Required GoFundMe disclosure:

James White, Lisa Cooper, Sarah Beth Wood, Rebecca Smith, Susan Curran, Kate Rielly, and Victoria Simons are the organizers of this GoFundMe. We are located in Denver, CO and Seattle, WA.

 

We are raising funds for the benefit of our friend Emily White. The funds will be sent directly to Emily to pay medical bills, healthcare and living expenses, and other related costs during her treatment and recovery.

 

And because photos are fun, here are a few more of our beloved friend. Enjoy!