Help Jackie Sunshine Beat Breast Cancer!

Sunshine squad! As most of you know our Jackie was recently diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. While they did get the tumor out during her double mastectomy, upon testing it they realized it was a very aggressive form of cancer. Thankfully it had not spread but it’s imperative Jackie undergo five months of aggressive chemo to ensure it does not return. 

In fact, Jackie has already finished her first chemo treatment and is hanging in as best she can. 

Cara and Jackie are already $50,000 into this journey between the surgery and IVF (a necessity to retrieve & save as many healthy eggs as possible before chemo & hormone therapy.) They have no idea the costs they are going to endure with this chemo treatment, on top of their normal bills and to do that on one salary is impossible.


They need our help so they can focus on getting Jackie through this chemo journey. We know this is a difficult time for everyone but please know every single dollar counts and is BEYOND appreciated. If you can’t donate please pass this page on far and wide and help us spread the word! 


Thank you so much in advance for joining the #jackiesunshinesquad and for helping Cara and Jackie during this extremely difficult time. 


Jackie’s fiancé Cara has so kindly written out their full story below. We will continue to provide updates along the journey. A million thanks you’s, stay safe all.




JACKIE'S STORY

In June 2020, Jackie Sunshine was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer at the age of 31 - just 1 week before her 32nd birthday. After monitoring her BRCA2 genetic mutation for about 3 years, her cancer care team found a 1.4 CM tumor in her left breast. This diagnosis began a very long, unfortunate and tumultuous road for Jackie, her family and myself, her fiance, Cara.


Jackie immediately began the research and hard work of finding her doctors, before undergoing a double mastectomy in mid-August. After the surgery, we learned her lymph nodes were clear (meaning the cancer had not already spread to more of her body, phew), but unfortunately the more intricate tests of her tumor showed that Jackie’s cancer was very aggressive and fast moving -- placing her in the “high-risk” category. 


This categorization meant that Jackie would need to go through chemotherapy and hormone therapy in order to lower her chances of possible recurrence later in her life. 


Facing the scary unknowns of the future, much like many young women with this type of diagnosis, we both quickly decided to have Jackie go through IVF in order to extract her eggs. We weren’t going to let this cancer diagnosis take away the chance to build the family we’ve always wanted.


 Jackie had her eggs extracted in mid-September and we’re happy to report that we have some potential, future babies sitting safely on ice! A small, shining light of happiness in the storm of tragedy.  


Staring down the barrel of a long and arduous treatment, Jackie and I postponed our wedding from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021 - a sad but necessary decision to make. As of October 15th, Jackie fearlessly began her chemotherapy treatment, which will last anywhere from 4-5 months in total - bringing us well into 2021. 


Since the beginning, our friends, family and loved ones have been reaching out, providing meals and lending any helping hand they can. Everyone has been so eager to support us, and continues to ask us what they can do on a daily basis. 


Thanks to our close circle, Jackie now has the materials she needs to get through chemo.  But since her appetite fluctuates daily, and flowers are no longer allowed in the house, we’re not sure what to say to our wider circle, and how they can help….


We have a very long road ahead of us, so we felt the easiest way for our loved ones to continue to support us would be with donations via this Go Fund Me page. 


Jackie and I have spent close to $50,000 on the surgery and IVF, so any gifts (big or small) would be HUGELY helpful. The full cancer treatment costs are still unknown and we are as Jackie focuses on fighting cancer, we are living on one salary. Between our regular bills, in addition to medical/symptom relief products, and these treatment costs we are at a loss. 


Even $5, $10 or $20 would be an incredibly warm and loving gesture that we will not take for granted.  But please do not feel obligated - this is a place for those who feel helpless, and want to do something tangible for us.  We understand times are tough for everyone this year, so if you’re not in a place to donate, a kind text or snail mail greeting card is just as great & brings that beautiful smile back to Miss Sunshine’s face - which is really needed during these hard times.


Thank you for visiting our page, thank you for reading our story and THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for anything you can do (or have done) to help us in this challenging journey. We love you all and wish we could visit with every single one of you.  


We hope all our loved ones are staying safe and healthy -- wash your hands, wear a mask and don’t forget about those individuals who are even more at risk than you.  Complete isolation isn’t something most cancer patients have to deal with, until now, but your positive thoughts and love will definitely make this a lot more bearable.