Help Amrita Fight Cancer
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Video Message from Amrita
Hello! This is Vikram Sathyan-Amit and family from Middlebury, Connecticut. We are on GoFundMe organizing a fundraiser for our dearest friend and little sister by heart, Amrita, who is battling an aggressive form of stage IIB breast cancer.
Your contributions will help cover costs linked to:
- Chemotherapy, Radiation and Surgery
- Physical therapy / Lymphatic therapy
- Mental wellness treatment
- Breast cancer expert doctor consultations in the U.S
- Gene therapy treatment consultations
- Post-surgical inflammation treatment
- Any long Covid-19 state related therapy/treatment
Anything over this amount will go to fund Amrita’s treatment, medical bills, and therapy for the next five years.
We are running this fundraise for Amrita, who is the beneficiary and take full responsibility to send all funds raised to Amrita in India where she is undergoing treatment right now. In the interests of transparency, all timely updates on her treatment progress and wellbeing will be shared with all well-wishers here on this page.
THE AMRITA WE KNOW AND LOVE
Over the past 20+ years we’ve known Amrita, she went from being my close friend's younger sister and a junior in college to my own loving little sister. Amrita just turned 40 this April, a day after she received her cancer diagnosis. It’s been painful to watch her transformation from an energetic, funny young person to someone living with the ravages of chemotherapy. She is a loving daughter, caring and supportive little sister, a fun, playful aunt to all her little nieces and nephews, a trustworthy and helpful close friend to those around her!
At the start of the pandemic, she chose to stay with her elderly parents in India (her mom is 78 and her dad is 85) who are living with multiple chronic illnesses. Although she loves to travel and has always been a social person, she was able to handle the isolation better than most others. Her creativity, her international community of friends, and her job kept her busy even when the world was locked down and uncertain. She has always been a socially aware person, eager to contribute to society at large and during the pandemic she realized a long held dream and was accepted to a PhD program to study the impact of the internet on democracy around the world.
Unfortunately, as the pandemic stretched into a second year and her cancer diagnosis came in, her life changed completely.
AMRITA’S CANCER JOURNEY
Amrita wants everyone to know that breast cancer awareness and education may have saved her life! Due to the pandemic and other reasons, it had been about two years since she’d had a routine mammogram or pap smear but a chance discovery one sleepy morning sent her to the family doctor for a consult on a lump she’d suddenly detected in her left breast. The doctor in turn recommended a mammogram and ultrasound which scored high enough on the suspicious scale (she scored a 4 out of a possible 6 where 5 & 6 is unambiguously cancer) to trigger an automatic biopsy.
On the day before her 40th birthday - a landmark birthday - the oncologist informed her that the tests had come back positive. She had invasive carcinoma of the left breast.
Many might have fallen apart but Amrita, with two elderly parents to care for, didn’t have the luxury. She immediately arranged for the recommended surgery - doctors weren’t sure what they would find when they went in but they knew the lump needed to come out ASAP. Post-surgery, when the final pathologies came in, they had good news and bad news.
The good news was that they were able to get the cancerous lump out while it was still Stage IIB. The bad news was that it had begun to spread to her lymphatic nodes. She was looking at long months of chemo and radiation followed perhaps by other surgeries to remove her ovaries and her uterus!
At first, the doctors were hopeful that due to her young age, she would be one amongst the small percentage of cancer patients who respond well to chemotherapy. However, the very first time she had a session, she ended up in the hospital. It took three days of IV meds for her to get back on her feet in a manner of speaking.
Once the first steps of the treatment started she very quickly found herself unable to eat, drink water without throwing up, sit up, lie down, or walk properly for days after each session. Her mouth was full of sores, her skin began to dry and peel, her nails turned black, her hair fell out and her bones ached. Amrita was forced to quit her job and its health insurance.
COVID+ AND CANCER IN THE SAME YEAR
And then this September 23rd as if fate would not see kindly to these sufferings, Amrita and her family tested positive for Covid-19, despite taking the greatest care and being double vaccinated. They were all quarantined for 10 days plus the extra 7 days on observation as is the government regulation in India. This delayed her chemo program and treatment and for her, as someone who is severely immunocompromised, this sudden experience has created a lot of anxiety and potential additional complications towards her journey to fight cancer! As family, friends, and well-wishers, we pray to see her recover fully and get back to her routine in life and celebrate with everyone the joy of life and the blessings of God!
All throughout this life changing experience Amrita has shown courage and grit, most importantly she has not lost her sense of humor! Having lost her medical insurance with her job, Amrita has been funding the treatment with her savings. While some medical bills and costs are met by family and friends, we respectfully request any contributions from you to help Amrita fight cancer.
All contributions will go towards hospital bills, the cost of Amrita’s cancer treatment and rehabilitation towards recovery and any Covid-19 related complications in her treatment arising from the long-covid-19 state. At the moment, doctors are not sure what long-term Covid-19 complications Amrita could face in the next few months or towards the future as her treatment continues. Since Covid-19 is a new viral disease, there is no playbook in place they can follow. Keeping all possibilities open, Amrita is readying to face her treatment one step at a time.
While we may not be able to guarantee a cancer-free life to Amrita, to provide peace of mind and relieve the physical and emotional pain and suffering she and to a large extent her family, especially her aged parents are going through right now, each of your contributions will provide a huge financial stress relief to Amrita and her family and a shot of confidence to face cancer head on. Everything else is in God’s hands!
We would also kindly request to keep Amrita in your prayers, to give her the strength to see this difficult time through, to make her treatment a success. Have a chance to get back on her feet to face life head on once again and be a strong support to her aging parents and bring some happiness back to their lives!
God bless!
Hello! This is Vikram Sathyan-Amit and family from Middlebury, Connecticut. We are on GoFundMe organizing a fundraiser for our dearest friend and little sister by heart, Amrita, who is battling an aggressive form of stage IIB breast cancer.
Your contributions will help cover costs linked to:
- Chemotherapy, Radiation and Surgery
- Physical therapy / Lymphatic therapy
- Mental wellness treatment
- Breast cancer expert doctor consultations in the U.S
- Gene therapy treatment consultations
- Post-surgical inflammation treatment
- Any long Covid-19 state related therapy/treatment
Anything over this amount will go to fund Amrita’s treatment, medical bills, and therapy for the next five years.
We are running this fundraise for Amrita, who is the beneficiary and take full responsibility to send all funds raised to Amrita in India where she is undergoing treatment right now. In the interests of transparency, all timely updates on her treatment progress and wellbeing will be shared with all well-wishers here on this page.
THE AMRITA WE KNOW AND LOVE
Over the past 20+ years we’ve known Amrita, she went from being my close friend's younger sister and a junior in college to my own loving little sister. Amrita just turned 40 this April, a day after she received her cancer diagnosis. It’s been painful to watch her transformation from an energetic, funny young person to someone living with the ravages of chemotherapy. She is a loving daughter, caring and supportive little sister, a fun, playful aunt to all her little nieces and nephews, a trustworthy and helpful close friend to those around her!
At the start of the pandemic, she chose to stay with her elderly parents in India (her mom is 78 and her dad is 85) who are living with multiple chronic illnesses. Although she loves to travel and has always been a social person, she was able to handle the isolation better than most others. Her creativity, her international community of friends, and her job kept her busy even when the world was locked down and uncertain. She has always been a socially aware person, eager to contribute to society at large and during the pandemic she realized a long held dream and was accepted to a PhD program to study the impact of the internet on democracy around the world.
Unfortunately, as the pandemic stretched into a second year and her cancer diagnosis came in, her life changed completely.
AMRITA’S CANCER JOURNEY
Amrita wants everyone to know that breast cancer awareness and education may have saved her life! Due to the pandemic and other reasons, it had been about two years since she’d had a routine mammogram or pap smear but a chance discovery one sleepy morning sent her to the family doctor for a consult on a lump she’d suddenly detected in her left breast. The doctor in turn recommended a mammogram and ultrasound which scored high enough on the suspicious scale (she scored a 4 out of a possible 6 where 5 & 6 is unambiguously cancer) to trigger an automatic biopsy.
On the day before her 40th birthday - a landmark birthday - the oncologist informed her that the tests had come back positive. She had invasive carcinoma of the left breast.
Many might have fallen apart but Amrita, with two elderly parents to care for, didn’t have the luxury. She immediately arranged for the recommended surgery - doctors weren’t sure what they would find when they went in but they knew the lump needed to come out ASAP. Post-surgery, when the final pathologies came in, they had good news and bad news.
The good news was that they were able to get the cancerous lump out while it was still Stage IIB. The bad news was that it had begun to spread to her lymphatic nodes. She was looking at long months of chemo and radiation followed perhaps by other surgeries to remove her ovaries and her uterus!
At first, the doctors were hopeful that due to her young age, she would be one amongst the small percentage of cancer patients who respond well to chemotherapy. However, the very first time she had a session, she ended up in the hospital. It took three days of IV meds for her to get back on her feet in a manner of speaking.
Once the first steps of the treatment started she very quickly found herself unable to eat, drink water without throwing up, sit up, lie down, or walk properly for days after each session. Her mouth was full of sores, her skin began to dry and peel, her nails turned black, her hair fell out and her bones ached. Amrita was forced to quit her job and its health insurance.
COVID+ AND CANCER IN THE SAME YEAR
And then this September 23rd as if fate would not see kindly to these sufferings, Amrita and her family tested positive for Covid-19, despite taking the greatest care and being double vaccinated. They were all quarantined for 10 days plus the extra 7 days on observation as is the government regulation in India. This delayed her chemo program and treatment and for her, as someone who is severely immunocompromised, this sudden experience has created a lot of anxiety and potential additional complications towards her journey to fight cancer! As family, friends, and well-wishers, we pray to see her recover fully and get back to her routine in life and celebrate with everyone the joy of life and the blessings of God!
All throughout this life changing experience Amrita has shown courage and grit, most importantly she has not lost her sense of humor! Having lost her medical insurance with her job, Amrita has been funding the treatment with her savings. While some medical bills and costs are met by family and friends, we respectfully request any contributions from you to help Amrita fight cancer.
All contributions will go towards hospital bills, the cost of Amrita’s cancer treatment and rehabilitation towards recovery and any Covid-19 related complications in her treatment arising from the long-covid-19 state. At the moment, doctors are not sure what long-term Covid-19 complications Amrita could face in the next few months or towards the future as her treatment continues. Since Covid-19 is a new viral disease, there is no playbook in place they can follow. Keeping all possibilities open, Amrita is readying to face her treatment one step at a time.
While we may not be able to guarantee a cancer-free life to Amrita, to provide peace of mind and relieve the physical and emotional pain and suffering she and to a large extent her family, especially her aged parents are going through right now, each of your contributions will provide a huge financial stress relief to Amrita and her family and a shot of confidence to face cancer head on. Everything else is in God’s hands!
We would also kindly request to keep Amrita in your prayers, to give her the strength to see this difficult time through, to make her treatment a success. Have a chance to get back on her feet to face life head on once again and be a strong support to her aging parents and bring some happiness back to their lives!
God bless!
Organizer
Vikram Sathyanarayana Amitha
Organizer
Waterbury, CT
