Our lives were flipped upside down last month when my partner Caitlin was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer. Since January, Caitlin had been experiencing severe fatigue and other debilitating symptoms of long covid—some of which were just starting to improve before the cancer diagnosis—and we’ve essentially been living on my income + savings all year. We’re so thankful that OHP has been covering her cancer treatment expenses so far, but this is going to be a long haul. We’re raising money to help with rent, bills, and the deluge of additional expenses that come with cancer, the worst full-time job ever.

Caitlin just started her second round of chemo and will be out of work for at least the next 7 months of active treatment (chemo, surgery, radiation). The cancer is aggressive and locally advanced, so this is a hard fight, but anyone who knows Caitlin already knows that she will never back down from one of those! Her care team at Good Sam is awesome and very optimistic, and we know that she can do this.

We’re sharing this now because we also know we need to lean on our community as we go through this process. If you can donate anything at all, or just signal boost, it will help us so much! The support we have gotten from our friends and family has already been so incredible; we truly cannot imagine doing this without y’all.

Caitlin is the coolest and fiercest person I’ve ever met, and she’s spent her life building community here in Corvallis, particularly in the diy music scene. She was literally in the waiting room for her first MRI brainstorming backup plans to make sure we wouldn’t have to let down any of the touring bands that we’d booked shows for this summer. That incredibly on-brand behavior will come as a surprise to no one, and we are so grateful for your support to rally around her now.

Thank you so much for reading, and for being here for us. Couldn’t do it without you.

Indiana & Caitlin