Hayley Moon’s battle against Small Cell Thymus Cancer

For those who don’t know me I am Reese Sledge, Hayley Moon’s oldest daughter. Like most mothers my Mom has worried about us kids her whole life, now it’s our turn to worry about her and help her along this journey of fighting cancer. First of all she probably won’t be happy when she sees that I have posted this. She is not someone who likes to ask for help and doesn’t want anyone to pity her. This year has had a very rough start for our family and has also come with a very unexpected hurdle. If you didn’t know my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 Thymic Small Cell Carcinoma the week of her birthday back in the beginning of March. No one is ever prepared to hear that news, especially with it being so advanced. Needless to say it has been a roller coaster of emotions for us all. Typically your thymus disappears in childhood but hers did not so this type of cancer is VERY rare. Only about 400 cases diagnosed per year in the US. Most Drs have never seen a hands on case of this kind. She is currently going through chemo treatments at Siteman/Barnes in St. Louis in hopes to shrink the mass. If it responds to the chemo they would like to attempt surgery, which is VERY extensive and complicated due to the location of the thymus and recovery process. The mass when found was 8.6cm (HUGE!). It is so large and caused so much fluid to build in her lung (13ML drained from the lung) that the combination of the mass and fluid had shifted her heart from its original position. This is going to be a very long road of treatments, procedures, surgeries, Dr appointments, and scans. I also wanted to thank those and mention that my mom has received donated PTO at work, which she has expressed how truly grateful she is. And I want to say thank you to all her coworkers who made that happen. It means a lot to her and us as her family. It really takes a village. For now my mom is in good spirits and trying her best to stay positive throughout this journey. Aside from all the negative some other major things going on in her life, (EXCITING THINGS) I am pregnant with my first baby and my mom is extremely excited to be a Lolli come July! Lynnex will be starting kindergarten this fall, Ava will be starting college, Braylin has a big summer of travel ball ahead of her, and Braxton also has a summer of baseball coming up as well. These are all things my mom has to look forward to and keep her mind occupied as she battles this awful disease. The point of this is to raise money for bills associated with treatment costs, chemotherapy, medications, and costs of traveling. I want to try and help to take even the smallest amount of financial burden off of my mom and Jeremie so they can continue to live as normally as possible even though this will be a long and hard road ahead. Again those of you who really know my mom know she is not one to ask for help and will not on her own. My mom has always been an extremely hard worker, has always had a job, and never asks people for anything. She has always provided for our family in so many ways aside from supporting us financially. If you feel compelled to donate it would be greatly appreciated and go to great use in aiding in medical costs to support our family during this time of need. If you want to donate and prefer not to on gofundme you can send it to me on Venmo and I will get the funds to them to be used for varying medical costs. My Venmo is Reese-Tupper If you aren’t able to make a donation, we just ask you to please just keep our family in your thoughts and prayers! We appreciate each and every person who has reached out to myself or my mom and Jeremie with words of encouragement and support. Thank you all!