I’m asking for help for my daughter, Dagny Smith, during an extremely difficult time for her.
First, the good news!
Many of you know that Dagny has been battling cancer for over a year. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of stage 2B breast cancer on January 5 of last year. At that time, she was working as General Manager for a large wholesale warehouse. We are SO grateful that she has a great boss who guaranteed her job. Not only that, he kept her on full payroll for six months throughout her extensive chemotherapy – despite the fact that she had to miss a lot of work due to appointments, treatments, testing, and sickness from chemo side effects.
She then moved to the surgery phase of her treatment, which made it hard for her to work at all for a while. We are grateful that she had savings she could use for living expenses during that time.
She still has continuing treatments, but the wonderful news is: following her mastectomy and the removal of 13 lymph nodes, Dagny is now cancer-free!
The crisis leading to this request for help:
Dagny was able to work part-time for a while, and we all thought she would be able to go back to work full-time at this point. Unfortunately, over the last few months, she unexpectedly grew increasingly weak and fatigued, constantly nauseated, sick at her stomach, and barely able to eat. While some of this may be a buildup of side effects from chemo, her oncologist thinks there is something else going on and has ordered a series of urgent tests and lab work to uncover the cause and get Dagny well.
Dagny hasn't been able to return to work at all during this time, and that’s why she needs your help now. Her savings are completely gone. Her health insurance premiums doubled in January, adding another heavy burden that she can’t pay. Rent, car payments, insurance, utilities, co-pays, medical bills, and more are now due.
She wants nothing more than to get back to work full-time. Right now, though, she needs help to stay afloat. She needs help paying bills so she can concentrate on healing from this unexpected complication -- without the crushing stress of worrying about losing her health insurance, her apartment, her car, and more.
Throughout this horrific 13-month ordeal, Dagny has been a real trooper – keeping a positive attitude despite her sickness and pain. She is the strongest person I know! Naturally, this detour on her road to recovery is pretty discouraging.
Any support you can offer — whether a large or small donation, sharing her story, or sending words of encouragement — will make a real difference during this frightening and uncertain time.
Dagny and our family are deeply grateful for your prayers, encouragement, kindness and generosity.