Help Hailey Defeat Rare Liver Cancer

We are fundraising to help my wife, Hailey Upchurch as she defeats cancer. Hailey and I are high school sweethearts from Fort Zumwalt West. Weve been together 9 years, married for 7 now. She is the most amazing, loving, and caring person I've ever met. She is also the most incredible mom to our 6 year old daughter Presley. She loves going on hikes, and just being out in nature. She is an AMAZING baker, and makes the most delicious desserts. She loves gardening in the summer, and giving people fresh veggies. She has the biggest heart for friends and strangers alike. Hailey has fire in her heart, and a fighting spirit to defeat this cancer. With every challenge, she pushes through to the other side. She wont ever let her spirit and faith be dragged down. She wants to try different treatments and therapies but, being a single income family makes our budget very small after all bills are paid. All out of pocket expenses are very difficult and treatment and therapies that aren't covered by insurance, impossible.

 

Here's Haileys story.

 

In 2015, a few months after giving birth to our daughter, Hailey was diagnosed with Stage IV Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. A rare liver cancer with only about 200 cases globally each year. This cancer generally only affects otherwise healthy young adults. Chemotherapy and other traditional treatments have been shown to be ineffective against this specific cancer.

She had a 10in tumor the size of a football removed from her liver, along with surrounding lymph nodes. She had regular scans, which came back clear for 3 years.

In 2018, a scan showed 2 small growths around her liver and multiple small spots around her lungs and stomach. Since this cancer is supposed to be slow growing, the doctors wanted to wait on surgery, and continue watching it.

After several months the tumors had gotten to 4-5 centimeters big. And spots in stomach and lung still present.

We really started focusing on our health, with exercise and good nutrition. Then we started working on our mental health. We changed our lifestyles and were in a really good place in our lives. At her next scan it showed than all spots in her lungs and stomach had completely disappeared, and the tumors had shrunk down to 2-3cm! We were on top of the world! We continued our new lifestyles never looking back. At the end of 2019, we were trying to buy a house. Things with the loan fell apart, and we were struggling to figure out where to live. This went on for several months and really took its toll on us mentally. At Haileys next scan, it showed that the masses had began growing again and they wanted to remove them.

They ended up removing the masses, her spleen, and part of her pancreas.

Recovery from surgery was harder than before, as she was struggling with nausea and not being able to eat. Her weight went down to around 90 pounds. But Hailey always kept the mentality that "one day this will all be a memory" and kept pushing forward. It took 3 months but eventually Hailey was feeling better and was able to carry on with normal life.

At the beginning of 2022, Hailey began to having near constant nausea. She went in for a scan and it shows she has another mass on her liver and a smaller one in her belly. They dont want to operate because the mass on her liver, is near the blood supply for her liver. They say if were able to shrink the one on her liver they would be able to surgically remove all the masses. The mass is also pressing on her stomach making it difficult for her to eat and maintain proper nutrition.

She is currently taking some medication to control body hormones as the tumors have seemed to respond to stress hormones in the past and the doctors have other patients responding to the treatment.

This fundraiser is to help our family make ends meet and to be able to give Hailey whatever she needs to defeat this cancer. We want to be able to make this time as stress free as possible for her. And to be able to do thing we wouldnt normally be able to do, like visit her Mom and grandparents who live in Florida.

Theres different IV therapies and treatments available that she wants to try, but insurance doesn't cover it.

Any help at all, is so greatly appreciated. I know our hopes will stay high. Thank you so much for listening to Hailey's story.