Hi, I would love to tell you about my too-amazing-for-words friend Emily.

Why? Because I'm asking for donations to support brain tumor treatment (and therefore also fertility preservation) for a beautiful 32 year young woman.

Emily is a special kind of magical person that can calm a room of rambunctious toddlers (that's her profession - daycare teacher!) She has the superpower of connecting quickly and intimately with all ages - having profound conversations cutting to the core of life's best topics with grannies and children alike. Emily worked at the daycare my children went to, not only caring deeply for the kids there, but she also would captain an annual Dance-a-thon to raise money for The Ronan Foundation. Even before she herself was afflicted, she would organize events to raise money for childhood cancer. In early 2020, Emily temporarily moved in with me to help with childcare as we began to navigate the new normal. At a time of global and personal crisis, Emily was my soul salve, sharing her light with my family; and at the time, she was fighting to recover from her own life-altering medical event: a stroke brought on by surgery to remove a brain tumor.

In April of 2019, Emily had flown back to her hometown of Santa Monica, where she underwent surgery to remove a glioma. When she woke up, the medical team informed Emily that she had suffered a stroke which impaired the speech center of her brain. Through a lot of patience and speech therapy, she was able to speak and read again, but it took an extremely long time. A favorite memory that Fred (my now-seven-year-old) and I like to re-live is one during lockdown: sitting around the dinner table, we were pretending to lose our voices – they simply wouldn't work! Emily finally opened her mouth and let out the most beautiful song (she comes from a huge musical family). She then shut her mouth and we begged to hear more! Finally, she obliged, opened her mouth, and let out an enormous belch! Her sense of humor never left even in some dark days. All the while, she was working very hard to get back to her favorite things. I can't tell you how proud she was when she conquered her biggest goal and was able to re-read her favorite novel. She wept. This leads me to why we are here . . .

A scan has revealed that Emily must have another mass removed from her brain. Next month, she will undergo surgery to remove the tumor in New York. She’ll be awake – the surgeon says that's the best option to lessen the chance of damage to her speech or motor cortex. But recovery will be hard.

While she is recovering, Emily cannot stay in her current apartment. And since her lease doesn't allow for subletters, she will have to continue to pay the rent. She will also need to find temporary living arrangements where she and her mom (who will fly in from CA) can live during Emily’s recovery. During this time (at least two months), she will not be making an income (she is not salaried), and although insurance is covering most of the procedure, and she has cancer grants covering some fertility preservation costs (her doctors encouraged this in case she needs chemo in the future), she is still anticipating an additional $800-$1000 for a first cycle of fertility preservation, not to mention storage costs, which are $800/year.

I am hoping to raise $20,000 for Emily. Here is how that breaks down: egg storage $800/year for 8 years = $6,400. The estimated cost of her current apartment as well as (potentially) a second for two months, I'm guessing Manhattan $1,500k x 2months x 2apartments = $6,000. Therapy $100 x 8 weeks (at the minimum) = $800. $50 copay x 4 = $200. Medication costs were hard to know and with no income, I included groceries in my guesstimate, so I rounded up to $15,000. Then thanks to the absolutely incredible outpouring of support and her amazing community - I decided to up the goal to cover her family's flight costs . I have been touched beyond words by your generosity.

All of this to say: please help me help Emily pay for these things: rent, copays, medication costs, egg storage, groceries, therapy and most importantly, peace of mind. I wouldn't ask you to do this for just anybody - Emily is truly a special person, aggressively adored by those that know her and are fortunate to experience her warmth.

I'll end with a modified version of something Emily texted me when I was going through a hard time :

Em, we are sending you

a) a HUGE bear hug

b) a gentle hug

c) a "FCK CANCER" scream at the top of our lungs

d) a quiet partner to cry with

Take whatever you need, we are here.