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Hello Friends and Midway Family,
This campaign is for our dear friend Betty Brandon who is fighting breast cancer for the third time. Betty is a sweet, loving, caring gal (and was a Flight Attendant and part of the Midway Airlines family that was based in Raleigh, NC) and now she needs our help. We are trying to raise $29,850 to help cover her ever-growing expenses while in Houston, TX for her hotel expenses, segmental breast surgery, radiation treatment, and travel expenses back and forth between Houston and Raleigh. Betty is already over $14,000 in debt because of this cancer journey so thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any donation you can make to help Betty Kick Cancer’s Butt!
Betty’s story:
Right now, I'm sitting in a hotel room that I can't afford ($250 per night plus food) but it's literally attached to the hospital and clinics of my doctors and surgeons at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. It's all about CURE rates and MD Anderson has the highest cure rates literally, in the world. This isn't my first rodeo with breast cancer, it's my third. This is the reason for starting a Go Fund Me Page. Due to COVID-19 I must self-isolate in my hotel room and for food, I have to order room service or take-out delivery.
The first time I was diagnosed I was 33 years old. Back then they were hesitant to do further testing because they had never seen breast cancer in a 33-year-old woman before. Upon my insistence, they did further testing and found out I had stage two breast cancer. My world was turned upside down. Not only health-wise but I was going thru a divorce as well. I had a modified mastectomy, six months of chemo, and five weeks (every day) of radiation. It's tough to be on your own especially when you are fighting cancer.
Two and a half years later I went in for what I call a 'Well baby check-up.” I had a slight cough and my Doctor wanted to get chest X-rays. At this point, medical tests of all kinds were very familiar to me so I thought an x-ray was a piece of cake. After the x-ray, I was on my way to the airport to go join some friends for a fun weekend, so I thought. My doctor called and told me to come back to the hospital. They had found something he didn't like on the x-ray and, it turned out, I had a collapsed lung. It was a good thing that I didn't get on that plane. A surgeon pushed a long, hollow straw looking 'pipe' into my chest between two ribs and I had to wear a rectangle box on my chest for several weeks to fix my collapsed lung.
The second diagnosis was very, very different. I couldn't get anybody to take the cancerous lesion out of my lung or give me chemo or radiation. A local Raleigh hospital Oncologist told me it would be like going after the horses after they had gotten out of the barn. I told him that's what a posse is for. They still refused to help me as did Duke and Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Honestly, these Doctors gave up on me and were just going to leave me to die. I had STAGE 4 breast cancer.
That is when I got my first computer and started researching other cancer treatment centers. After weeks of 24/7 research, and me not giving up on me, I found MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. As I stated before this center has the highest Cancer CURE rates in the world! I was super lucky to get an appointment with world-renowned metastatic breast cancer Oncologist Dr. Gabriel Hortabage at MD Anderson. The chemotherapy treatment I needed was not yet FDA approved and they did not need any more trial patients so he gave me this protocol under “compassionate use." He knew that without this treatment I would die. The surgery into my lung was called a thoracotomy. It was a very tough surgery where they go through your back and into your lungs, the process cracked several ribs and it was a very painful recovery but it saved my life!
I do want to share the THREE VERY SPECIAL THINGS that honestly got me through the second cancer journey:
· The thought of going back to work as a Flight Attendant at Midway Airlines
· My Associate Pastor Will Gatling of Bayleaf Baptist Church
· My Bible
My third breast cancer diagnosis is called Ductal Carcinoma, It is not metastatic cancer – it is new cancer in my body. I had a mammogram on 06/24/20 and it showed calcifications that were highly suspicious for cancer. I immediately contacted MD Anderson in Houston, TX and shared the mammogram results with them and they wanted to see me as soon as possible. So, on June 28, 2020, I was on a plane to Houston. I had to leave my sweet precious dog, Bailey, and my home behind in the trusting care of my friends, to fight this wicked battle once again.
After many tests and appointments with the Oncology team, I am going into surgery on Friday, July 17, 2020. I will have a segmental resection that will be followed by five weeks of radiation therapy. My hope is to recover enough from the surgery in Houston, TX to be able to travel back to Raleigh, NC for the five weeks of radiation treatment and to be home with my Bailey.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy life to read my story and thank you and God Bless for any donations you can make to help me fight this horrible disease - cancer.
Love,
Betty Ann
This campaign is for our dear friend Betty Brandon who is fighting breast cancer for the third time. Betty is a sweet, loving, caring gal (and was a Flight Attendant and part of the Midway Airlines family that was based in Raleigh, NC) and now she needs our help. We are trying to raise $29,850 to help cover her ever-growing expenses while in Houston, TX for her hotel expenses, segmental breast surgery, radiation treatment, and travel expenses back and forth between Houston and Raleigh. Betty is already over $14,000 in debt because of this cancer journey so thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any donation you can make to help Betty Kick Cancer’s Butt!
Betty’s story:
Right now, I'm sitting in a hotel room that I can't afford ($250 per night plus food) but it's literally attached to the hospital and clinics of my doctors and surgeons at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. It's all about CURE rates and MD Anderson has the highest cure rates literally, in the world. This isn't my first rodeo with breast cancer, it's my third. This is the reason for starting a Go Fund Me Page. Due to COVID-19 I must self-isolate in my hotel room and for food, I have to order room service or take-out delivery.
The first time I was diagnosed I was 33 years old. Back then they were hesitant to do further testing because they had never seen breast cancer in a 33-year-old woman before. Upon my insistence, they did further testing and found out I had stage two breast cancer. My world was turned upside down. Not only health-wise but I was going thru a divorce as well. I had a modified mastectomy, six months of chemo, and five weeks (every day) of radiation. It's tough to be on your own especially when you are fighting cancer.
Two and a half years later I went in for what I call a 'Well baby check-up.” I had a slight cough and my Doctor wanted to get chest X-rays. At this point, medical tests of all kinds were very familiar to me so I thought an x-ray was a piece of cake. After the x-ray, I was on my way to the airport to go join some friends for a fun weekend, so I thought. My doctor called and told me to come back to the hospital. They had found something he didn't like on the x-ray and, it turned out, I had a collapsed lung. It was a good thing that I didn't get on that plane. A surgeon pushed a long, hollow straw looking 'pipe' into my chest between two ribs and I had to wear a rectangle box on my chest for several weeks to fix my collapsed lung.
The second diagnosis was very, very different. I couldn't get anybody to take the cancerous lesion out of my lung or give me chemo or radiation. A local Raleigh hospital Oncologist told me it would be like going after the horses after they had gotten out of the barn. I told him that's what a posse is for. They still refused to help me as did Duke and Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Honestly, these Doctors gave up on me and were just going to leave me to die. I had STAGE 4 breast cancer.
That is when I got my first computer and started researching other cancer treatment centers. After weeks of 24/7 research, and me not giving up on me, I found MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. As I stated before this center has the highest Cancer CURE rates in the world! I was super lucky to get an appointment with world-renowned metastatic breast cancer Oncologist Dr. Gabriel Hortabage at MD Anderson. The chemotherapy treatment I needed was not yet FDA approved and they did not need any more trial patients so he gave me this protocol under “compassionate use." He knew that without this treatment I would die. The surgery into my lung was called a thoracotomy. It was a very tough surgery where they go through your back and into your lungs, the process cracked several ribs and it was a very painful recovery but it saved my life!
I do want to share the THREE VERY SPECIAL THINGS that honestly got me through the second cancer journey:
· The thought of going back to work as a Flight Attendant at Midway Airlines
· My Associate Pastor Will Gatling of Bayleaf Baptist Church
· My Bible
My third breast cancer diagnosis is called Ductal Carcinoma, It is not metastatic cancer – it is new cancer in my body. I had a mammogram on 06/24/20 and it showed calcifications that were highly suspicious for cancer. I immediately contacted MD Anderson in Houston, TX and shared the mammogram results with them and they wanted to see me as soon as possible. So, on June 28, 2020, I was on a plane to Houston. I had to leave my sweet precious dog, Bailey, and my home behind in the trusting care of my friends, to fight this wicked battle once again.
After many tests and appointments with the Oncology team, I am going into surgery on Friday, July 17, 2020. I will have a segmental resection that will be followed by five weeks of radiation therapy. My hope is to recover enough from the surgery in Houston, TX to be able to travel back to Raleigh, NC for the five weeks of radiation treatment and to be home with my Bailey.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy life to read my story and thank you and God Bless for any donations you can make to help me fight this horrible disease - cancer.
Love,
Betty Ann
Organizer and beneficiary
Betty Brandon
Beneficiary