Help Betty Survive, Recover & Thrive!

Betty, “the giver,” could use your help. Betty was just diagnosed with Stage 4 small cell lung cancer with more than a few setbacks and complications. She can’t work. She is facing loss of income, unexpected medical expenses, and increasing living costs. These bills are expected to escalate. Her mind and body are reeling.

I’m Blythe. Betty is my Auntie on my Bobba’s (Father’s) side. Betty puts Good in the world for all of us as an inspiration for positivity, optimism, fortitude, and generosity. We all benefit from her spirit and faith. Though we are thousands of miles from each other, I always feel her with me, as so many others I’ve spoken with do.

Betty gives and gives and gives, making a difference for everyone she touches, not just me and my family. She is strong for herself and others. She makes you feel special. Her “cackle,” as we have affectionately dubbed her distinctive laugh, is contagious. You can’t help but laugh along with her. She is making the best of everything while she continues to give and care for others!

Please help Betty, The Giver, with your donation, prayers, and inspired positivity! Let’s all come together and do what we can to give Betty one less worry, so she can focus on surviving her treatment, healing, recovering, and being cured! She would be so humbled with gratitude for support or any kind.

The good news is that her doctors think Betty is a force to be reckoned with! And she is! Her oncologist used the word “curative” several times during her treatment plan consultation. If there is anyone that can beat this, I know Betty is the one!

Imagine now that you are Auntie Betty… during the first 3 weeks of September….

You are told you have Stage 4 small cell lung cancer with an inoperable tumor the size of your left lung. The cancer has not spread to other organs.

A week later, you are told that the lung cancer has metastasized to your brain. There are at least 15 lesions of lung cancer in your brain that need immediate radiation therapy.

You go in and out of the ER with severe cellulitis. You are hospitalized for several days; your fever spikes to 104.8 degrees. New meds are introduced to fight the infection.

You begin full-brain radiation therapy — stat. After your release from the hospital, you start losing your hair.

You develop sores on the roof of your mouth as a side effect. The sores make it painful to eat. You lose your appetite. You have trouble sleeping. You get a loose tooth and mouth pain from it. It gives you a sinus infection — and again, new meds are ordered.

Meanwhile, the scheduled immunotherapy and chemotherapy must be postponed because your white blood cells aren’t yet mature enough due to all the antibiotics and radiation treatments you’ve had. You must wait to start this urgently-needed cancer treatment.

Your diabetes, previously controlled without insulin, shoots up because of the steroids you take to fight cellulitis. New meds are required to adjust your insulin.

You sense the fast-growing lung tumor is spreading during this time.

You have a sudden loss of income and now have more bills to pay than ever before. Each day sends you in a different direction — take care of this, don’t do that, do this, and on and on.

Can you even begin to wrap your head around this?

This is what Auntie Betty has experienced and is living through right now. And it’s been happening at breakneck speed.

Your donation will pay for unexpected medical and medication expenses, compensate for her loss of income, and help with insurance premiums, copays, and fast-approaching annual deductibles.

Auntie Betty’s husband, my Uncle Tim, is an army veteran, a survivor of brain cancer, lung cancer twice, liver cancer, skin cancer and, more recently, pancreatic cancer, among other health challenges. He lives with disabilities and battle scars. Auntie Betty has been a rock for both of them since Uncle Tim first suffered cancer in September 2006. They enjoy their lives together, their family (especially their grandkids, Maria and Lux), friends (like my family and me), trawling garage sales and bidding for the ultimate finds at estate auctions to resell as trusted sellers on eBay.

On Auntie Betty's behalf, thank you for considering giving to a woman who has given so much of herself to others and enabling her to continue to give. Blessings to all of you and yours!