Geff and I, as uncle and aunt to Ana, have set up this fundraiser to help her, her husband, and their young son.

Ariana Massaro , Ana to family and friends, is a 33-year-old woman from Central New York living with a rare type of sarcoma known as a desmoid tumor. She was diagnosed in 2019 at the age of 27. Since then, she has undergone numerous types of treatments that have helped, but have been unable to destroy the tumor completely. Her most recent treatment of inpatient chemotherapy over the course of several months, unfortunately, didn’t shrink the tumor, which was disheartening.

At the end of August, Ana was accepted into a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in NYC. This involves her traveling to NYC and back once a week for a few days for infusions from now through the foreseeable future, at least until the end of 2025. During this time, she will need to pay for hotel stays, meals, transportation within the city, travel to and from the city, etc., which adds to her already increasing medical debt. Some of these costs will be reimbursed, but not all of them.

What is…

..a desmoid tumor is a rare, locally invasive soft tissue tumor that forms in the connective tissue of the body. There are 5-6 cases per one million of the population per year.

.. an infusion is a method of putting fluids, including medication, into the bloodstream through an IV.

How Your Donation Will Help:

One trip to the city costs at least $ 2,000 per week, including all expenses (lodging, travel, transportation, food, etc.), so the trial costs will end up being $26,000.

Medical debt: She has about $10,000 from the time when she was unemployed last year and other trips where she had to travel to MSK in NJ and NYC for scans and other tests.

Ana is a fighter, but she can't do this alone.

Please support her fight by giving what you can, sharing the link for this fundraiser, and sending positive thoughts her way as she continues her battle.

To learn more about desmoid tumors, check out the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation at https://dtrf.org/