Family Dreams for FELICIA VAN LYSAL
Donation protected
This campaign is sponsored by Dawn Huber-DeMarco and Sandra Huber-Green :)
Faith, Spirit & Dreams – TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Recently, Felicia learned her Stage 4 breast cancer is spreading very quickly. Neither Felicia, nor her doctors know how much time she has here with all of us. Felicia has metastatic breast cancer which means her cancer has spread to other organs in her body including tiny spots in the liver, lungs, colon and elsewhere. At this time, Felicia is waiting to learn if she qualifies for a study in which she’ll try a new drug. In the meantime, the spots on her liver have grown .5 cm in three months– which is an alarming rate. Felicia and Randall have two children, Emmanuel who is 10 years old and Izaiah who is six years old. Randall and Felicia have been married for 14 years and together for 19 years. Felicia is doing and has done so many things to support others going through breast cancer. She is currently serving on the St. Michael’s Breast Cancer Patient Advisory Council Committee, she’s a STEM Scout Lab Manager in Port Edwards, and she volunteers for the YMCA Livestrong program. She also gives speeches on breast cancer.
My sister, Dawn Huber-DeMarco and myself, have put together this Go Fund Me campaign for Felicia Van Lysal and her family. Felicia’s wishes are to take her family to Disney World for the first time in their lives and go on a Caribbean cruise to the Virgin Islands with her husband before she leaves. Due to mounting medical bills, and collection agencies garnishing what money they do have coming in, the money that is raised for them, will be held in an account for them do with what they wish – as a family. We want to be clear this money will not be going towards medical bills. During Felicia’s cancer journey, they have lost their home, had to surrender a vehicle and ended up living with her parents for a while until they could find a rental home. They cannot own a home due to their debt. It will be going toward fulfilling Felicia’s last wishes. We hope you can help in any way you can and as QUICKLY as you all can. Felicia is clear that she wants to do these things while she is still feeling good. The spot on her lung is already affecting her breathing.
Felicia’s story is below. This story was done before she learned of the most recent results or her scans.
Thank you and God bless each and every one of you!
Sandra Huber-Green
http://rock947.com/news/articles/2015/feb/16/calendar-project-to-raise-money-and-awareness-about-breast-cancer/
Article in the PC Gazette, on September 29, 2016.
http://www.pcgazette.com/Content/Default/County-Fare/Article/Inaugural-walk-will-raise-funds-for-breast-cancer-screening-for-those-in-need/-3/2/1595
Felicia Van Lysal’s medical diagnosis is “treatable, but not curable.” For the 37-year-old woman, that means her fate is determined. In this fact, there is not darkness, but rather light. There is hope. A young, vibrant woman who is quick to laugh and find joy along the rough – though not lonely – road she journeys, Van Lysal wants to bring hope to others who are diagnosed with breast cancer through Saint Michael’s Foundation’s inaugural Hope Starts Here 5K Walk, set for 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, at Pfiffner Pioneer Park.
“Although this is a serious topic, the Hope Starts Here 5K Walk is a celebration of those who have battled breast cancer or who are currently battling the disease. As we know, breast cancer does not just affect the person who is diagnosed, it affects every member of that person’s family, therefore the day will include activities that will include the family as a whole.
Van Lysal, Wisconsin Rapids, will be one of the speakers at the event, sharing her more than five-year story, which began with a stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis of the right breast with affected lymph nodes in August 2011. There was surgery – removing both breasts, lymph nodes on the right and ovaries to prevent estrogen production. There was chemotherapy and radiation, and a year of remission before the cancer returned. In May 2013, Van Lysal received a diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic cancer; it has spread to her lymph nodes, liver, lungs, colon and elsewhere in her body. Now, three years later, she continues not to look at how much time she has left, rather she lives each day fully and looks forward to the next. “I have a really good support system and positive attitude,” she said, pointing to her faith and her family – husband Randall and sons Izaiah, 6, and Emmanuel, 10 – as her support.
“We do everything we can. I don’t sit around and mope. I’m not going to roll over and die. For now I’m stable. “I’m a faith person, every day above ground is a beautiful day,” she said. While the funds raised will not help Van Lysal directly, she said through a generous donor she and her family will participate in the walk, and she will focus on others. “Maybe we can catch it sooner so (others) don’t have to go through it,” she said. “It’s so moving and so powerful when you can put something together like this, and the community says ‘yes, I’m going to give money’ … so others can see there’s hope at the end of the line. I don’t want other people to struggle like me and my family have.
Van Lysal currently is undergoing treatment with two experimental, FDA-approved drugs. One she takes weekly and the other daily. So far, her tumors are holding steady and her blood counts have leveled off. While she still gets tired easily, Van Lysal continues to substitute teach grades 4k through 12th grade in the Port Edwards School District, where her children attend and from which she graduated. She aims to be around for a long, long time, garnering strength from her children – whom she strives to see graduate, have first loves, perhaps get married, and continue to grow and learn and become successful – and from her husband, who before he even met Van Lysal endured his mother’s death from lung cancer. “I don’t want him to have to lose me either so that’s a motivation too,” she said. “I’ve been in it for a while, and we just roll with it now. It becomes a part of your life. I’m not sorry about it. I don’t look sick, I don’t act sick, and I’m not going down without a fight. “You look at life differently,” she said. “My life is more meaningful and more full every day.” And every day brings with it a new hope.
Faith, Spirit & Dreams – TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Recently, Felicia learned her Stage 4 breast cancer is spreading very quickly. Neither Felicia, nor her doctors know how much time she has here with all of us. Felicia has metastatic breast cancer which means her cancer has spread to other organs in her body including tiny spots in the liver, lungs, colon and elsewhere. At this time, Felicia is waiting to learn if she qualifies for a study in which she’ll try a new drug. In the meantime, the spots on her liver have grown .5 cm in three months– which is an alarming rate. Felicia and Randall have two children, Emmanuel who is 10 years old and Izaiah who is six years old. Randall and Felicia have been married for 14 years and together for 19 years. Felicia is doing and has done so many things to support others going through breast cancer. She is currently serving on the St. Michael’s Breast Cancer Patient Advisory Council Committee, she’s a STEM Scout Lab Manager in Port Edwards, and she volunteers for the YMCA Livestrong program. She also gives speeches on breast cancer.
My sister, Dawn Huber-DeMarco and myself, have put together this Go Fund Me campaign for Felicia Van Lysal and her family. Felicia’s wishes are to take her family to Disney World for the first time in their lives and go on a Caribbean cruise to the Virgin Islands with her husband before she leaves. Due to mounting medical bills, and collection agencies garnishing what money they do have coming in, the money that is raised for them, will be held in an account for them do with what they wish – as a family. We want to be clear this money will not be going towards medical bills. During Felicia’s cancer journey, they have lost their home, had to surrender a vehicle and ended up living with her parents for a while until they could find a rental home. They cannot own a home due to their debt. It will be going toward fulfilling Felicia’s last wishes. We hope you can help in any way you can and as QUICKLY as you all can. Felicia is clear that she wants to do these things while she is still feeling good. The spot on her lung is already affecting her breathing.
Felicia’s story is below. This story was done before she learned of the most recent results or her scans.
Thank you and God bless each and every one of you!
Sandra Huber-Green
http://rock947.com/news/articles/2015/feb/16/calendar-project-to-raise-money-and-awareness-about-breast-cancer/
Article in the PC Gazette, on September 29, 2016.
http://www.pcgazette.com/Content/Default/County-Fare/Article/Inaugural-walk-will-raise-funds-for-breast-cancer-screening-for-those-in-need/-3/2/1595
Felicia Van Lysal’s medical diagnosis is “treatable, but not curable.” For the 37-year-old woman, that means her fate is determined. In this fact, there is not darkness, but rather light. There is hope. A young, vibrant woman who is quick to laugh and find joy along the rough – though not lonely – road she journeys, Van Lysal wants to bring hope to others who are diagnosed with breast cancer through Saint Michael’s Foundation’s inaugural Hope Starts Here 5K Walk, set for 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, at Pfiffner Pioneer Park.
“Although this is a serious topic, the Hope Starts Here 5K Walk is a celebration of those who have battled breast cancer or who are currently battling the disease. As we know, breast cancer does not just affect the person who is diagnosed, it affects every member of that person’s family, therefore the day will include activities that will include the family as a whole.
Van Lysal, Wisconsin Rapids, will be one of the speakers at the event, sharing her more than five-year story, which began with a stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis of the right breast with affected lymph nodes in August 2011. There was surgery – removing both breasts, lymph nodes on the right and ovaries to prevent estrogen production. There was chemotherapy and radiation, and a year of remission before the cancer returned. In May 2013, Van Lysal received a diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic cancer; it has spread to her lymph nodes, liver, lungs, colon and elsewhere in her body. Now, three years later, she continues not to look at how much time she has left, rather she lives each day fully and looks forward to the next. “I have a really good support system and positive attitude,” she said, pointing to her faith and her family – husband Randall and sons Izaiah, 6, and Emmanuel, 10 – as her support.
“We do everything we can. I don’t sit around and mope. I’m not going to roll over and die. For now I’m stable. “I’m a faith person, every day above ground is a beautiful day,” she said. While the funds raised will not help Van Lysal directly, she said through a generous donor she and her family will participate in the walk, and she will focus on others. “Maybe we can catch it sooner so (others) don’t have to go through it,” she said. “It’s so moving and so powerful when you can put something together like this, and the community says ‘yes, I’m going to give money’ … so others can see there’s hope at the end of the line. I don’t want other people to struggle like me and my family have.
Van Lysal currently is undergoing treatment with two experimental, FDA-approved drugs. One she takes weekly and the other daily. So far, her tumors are holding steady and her blood counts have leveled off. While she still gets tired easily, Van Lysal continues to substitute teach grades 4k through 12th grade in the Port Edwards School District, where her children attend and from which she graduated. She aims to be around for a long, long time, garnering strength from her children – whom she strives to see graduate, have first loves, perhaps get married, and continue to grow and learn and become successful – and from her husband, who before he even met Van Lysal endured his mother’s death from lung cancer. “I don’t want him to have to lose me either so that’s a motivation too,” she said. “I’ve been in it for a while, and we just roll with it now. It becomes a part of your life. I’m not sorry about it. I don’t look sick, I don’t act sick, and I’m not going down without a fight. “You look at life differently,” she said. “My life is more meaningful and more full every day.” And every day brings with it a new hope.
Organizer
Sandra Huber-Green
Organizer
Wisconsin Rapids, WI