Help Ashleigh Continue the Fight Against Stage IV Cancer

This is Ashleigh Hartmaker. She is the strongest, bravest, and most resilient person I know.

Ashleigh has fought bravely against Stage IV stomach and lung cancer for nearly four years now. For those of you who donated to the 2020 campaign , you have the boundless gratitude of Ashleigh, myself, our family, and everyone that we know. Your donations gave us treatment that have given us years where there were thought only months.

Unfortunately, we have reached a juncture where we need to turn to the broader community once more for help.

A new tumor recently surfaced near Ashleigh's spinal column and the cancer has now breached the blood-brain barrier. The resulting decline has been precipitous and tremendously difficult for her to bear. She's in great pain. She's losing her eyesight. Her mobility has been greatly hampered and she can no longer walk without a cane.

There are still treatment options, but with the current prognosis, we can only hope that they prolong her life a matter of months. A year is the best possible care. But Ashleigh has persevered this far and has no intention of backing down now. For as long as she wants to keep up the fight, those months are worth any price to us.

The cost of being embattled with this for so long along with supporting her daughter, paying a mortgage, and meeting basic sustainment needs has left her nearly destitute and with few avenues left for relief. Getting out of bed every day is becoming increasingly challenging for her physically and mentally.

The profound love Ashleigh has for this child is what drives her to continue doing that in terrible pain and still manage to make ends meet in the face of insurmountable odds.

This is Penelope Hartmaker. She is something of a miracle child. Following a previous battle with breast cancer, Ashleigh was thought to be infertile post-treatment.

Seven years later and Penny proves that it was perhaps not dumb luck but herself some miracle embodied. She exhibits all the hallmarks of giftedness. She delights all with her smile and eccentricities. She chews through any problem of arithmetic you may have to dispense. And woe be to those who dare engage her in a battle of wits, for they are left sundered and devastated in each instance.

There is every reason to believe she will grow up to become an amazing human being. We, her family, are determined to ensure that and need your help to do it.

We love and cherish Ashleigh like nothing else on this earth. She is a pillar of our family and a void we will never hope to fill in our lives again as long as we live. And while cannot hope to mend that gap for ourselves any more than for Penelope, with your help, we are determined to stretch to the fabric of our limits in trying.

This fundraiser is to alleviate the costs of further treatment and help Ashleigh sustain her family and quality of life throughout this time. Anything in excess of that or otherwise not allocated towards those ends will be put into a trust for Penelope.

For whatever you may choose to give, know that it is not a debt we can hope to repay you. You are giving a little girl precious time to spend with her beloved mother. You are giving friends and family opportunities to relish in old memories and create new ones. You are giving comfort and quality of life to Ashleigh during her most awful and trying fight.

You have our sincerest gratitude for your time and consideration in reading this. Thank you is not enough.