Farmer Katie's Cancer Treatment and Healing

Hi, my name is Max. My partner, Katie, and I run Winter Kissed Farm together. In mid October 2023 Katie was diagnosed with breast cancer. This came as a serious shock to us as Katie is only 31 years old and has always been healthy and fit. We’ve been navigating a whirlwind of appointments for her diagnosis and setting up her surgery and treatment plan. Katie’s had at least 2 appointments in Missoula every week since being diagnosed. All of this in the midst of record harvests of storage crops and the farm’s largest Winter CSA membership to date. As we’ve begun to get our bearings again and wade into the beginnings of treatment, we have realized that we can’t do this alone. We need the support of our community.

Since we started farming together, our mission has been to provide our community with high quality, healthy, fresh food in the “off season” months. There’s a reason many farms bow out of this type of production. But we’ve taken it on willingly, because it’s been a stimulating challenge overcoming everything Montana’s winters can throw at us. The reward has been everyone’s gratitude over the years. We feel the wonder and joy every week when members stream in to pick up food through snowstorms and single-digit temperatures. We have dedicated our lives to this farm and to the goal of overcoming these bouts with weather. But it’s taken investment in infrastructure year after year. As we have built the farm, we have paid ourselves a very small amount – the bare minimum to get by. With the hopes and plans that at some point we would have the majority of investments accounted for and we could begin paying ourselves a more reasonable salary. We took this risk with the expectation that neither of us would experience any ongoing costly expenses during this period. We never expected something like a cancer diagnosis to be in our path, at least not for many many years down the road. But like the organic farming system we manage, nature always has surprises in store. We work long hours, most of our waking hours are spent either working on the farm or thinking about the farm. Farming is a tough road, with high highs but also the lowest of lows. We sacrifice our time and money to pour ourselves into growing plants, sacrificing much to provide our community with good food that we know is needed and to provide a sustainable place to work for employees who rely on it. To many onlookers, farming is a wholesome lifestyle. But to everyone here at this particular plot of soil, farming is more – it’s our life’s work.

We are determined to keep farming together for our community despite this diagnosis. We need help though in order to ease the burden. We are incredibly grateful to anyone who may donate to help us in this journey.

Katie is a deeply private person. But we realize that need for privacy must be set aside in order to ask for help. Katie is so deserving of help at this time, in light of what she has accomplished and contributed to the local food community in western Montana. Helping during this time of personal struggle will not only allow her to survive, it will allow her to thrive and continue contributing to local farming and even increase her impact going forward. It’s an honor to grow food for you and it’s a bit easier to ask for help from a community of supporters, friends and family who we have and will continue to provide food for and nourish.

We are lucky to have insurance but there are many expenses outside of this. For one, as Katie takes time for treatment and healing, the farm will need to hire additional employees to cover her large and varied list of farm responsibilities. This means the farm’s labor costs will be higher than projected. This added cost will be taken out of Katie and my salary as this is the only “flexible” area available in our budget.

Other expenses are anticipated:

Copayments and insurance premiums

Post-surgery physical therapy visits

Costs associated with seeking a second opinion on treatment

Supplements to offset treatment side effects

Supplemental treatments and therapies to offset treatment side effects

Non-covered medical expenses

Surgeries and hospitalizations

Labs

X-rays

MRIs

Periodic scans, tests, and appointments to detect recurrence

Medications

Mental health care

Additional grocery bills associated with a diet plan for cancer healing

Gas to get to and from appointments between Stevensville and Missoula

Appointments and medical care associated with narrowing down possible reasons for the cancer

Here’s a current update on Katie’s treatment:

Katie has an initial surgery planned for December 8th. Pathology reports after the surgery will ultimately determine the treatment plan. Katie is working with an oncology team at St. Pat’s in Missoula as well as a naturopathic doctor in Missoula. We are hopeful for good pathology results after the surgery.

Thank you all, we are so grateful to have such a caring community to lean on in this time.

Cheers,

Max