Help Katelyn beat Cervical Cancer

UPDATES:
Following an appointment with the treatment team and doctors this week, Katelyn's prognosis has again worsened...her Cancer has been upgraded from what was originally thought to be stage 1b1 Cancer to stage 3 Cancer, meaning it has not only invaded her Cervix but also surrounding lymph nodes.
Stage 3 is considered to be an advanced form of Cancer and has been yet another blow in this on-going battle.
Katelyn's radical hysterectomy surgery went well, it has now been 2 weeks post-surgery and she is recovering slowly at home with Matt and has the kids on days that someone is home to help her out with them as she is still very uncomfortable and slow.
But, we all know how determined Katelyn is so I'm sure she will be up and about in no time if she has things her way!
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Hi again everyone,
First of all we would like to say thank you for all of your messages, follow ups and well wishes. As you know from the previous information, Katelyn was undergoing a radical hysterectomy on the 4th of April to hopefully rid her of the stage 1b1 cervical cancer.

As we waited with bated breath over the last week, unfortunately histology reports have come back and the Cancer was worse than first thought and is at stage 1b2. Katelyn has contracted secondary cancers in her lymphatic system.
The cancer has spread to some of her pelvic and peremetrium lymph nodes.

In order for Katelyn to have the best possible outcome, she will have to undertake radical treatment commencing in a few weeks time. This will mean 5 days a week full body radiation for 6 weeks and 1 day a week of full body chemotherapy, followed by additional pelvic radiation. Additional treatments will happen if required.
Her treatment will be in John Hunter Hospital as an outpatient.

Katelyn will become very unwell and will need all of the support she can get in this very trying time. Not only is this going to be a physical battle but also mentally challenging we want to give her and her amazing family as much love and support as we can. It’s not an ideal situation that anyone wants to be in to ask for help, let alone money but this is looking to be a bigger financial battle than we ever imagined a few short weeks ago.

Over the coming weeks we will be discussing with Katelyn and Matt how they would best like to distribute the money donated between treatments and tests and allocating all money donated between these as needed.

We love you Katelyn x


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ORIGINAL POST:
Hi everyone,
I am Ami, one of Katelyn's best friends' and I'm starting this go fund me for Katelyn because I'm sure we can all agree she is too humble and headstrong to do one for herself...but, that's what friends are for! We see our loved ones struggling and we do anything we can to help them out.

Many of you won't even be aware of what Katelyn and Matt have had to endure over the last 18 months because they are both such positive & happy people, but I want to share some of the struggles in the hope that you can give whatever you can, to help out with the financial stresses that come along with terrible diseases like Cancer.

Around 18 months ago, Katelyn was ecstatic to learn that she was pregnant. She wasn't feeling well & didn't want to get too excited so kept the news to close friends and family as she was in between multiple doctors appointments.
Agonizing hours & nights were spent in the emergency room only to find out weeks later that she had miscarried. 

Keeping their positive outlook and wanting to get on with life, Matt & Katelyn were excitedly planning their Bali Wedding and also purchased their first house! Whilst on their honeymoon, Katelyn fell pregnant with the beautiful Miah, who we now call Miracle Miah.
Katelyn was still very unwell and in and out of doctors / hospital appointments which meant changing from working in an office to some days working from home. It was at this time that her employers made her redundant at 4 months pregnant. 
From this point on Katelyn was instructed to be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy as the doctors and specialists couldn't figure out what was wrong with her and there was a high risk of another miscarriage, along with heavy stress on her body.

As we know now, Miah was born healthy, but tiny, and after further tests and specialists appointments have revealed, Miah was so small because the un-diagnosed Cervical Cancer was using up so much of Miah's nutrients and therefore growing at a rapid speed. 

Katelyn now has to have an emergency radical hysterectomy next week and along with this have come tests, MRIs, specialist appointments and the like, most not covered by Medicare and most leaving Katelyn & Matt $500 or more out of pocket every time (multiple times per week).

Following surgery, because of the current size of the Cancer, Katelyn will need to undergo further tests and more than likely explore the options of chemo &/or radiation.
Because of the surgery, Katelyn is also now looking at another 6-12 months off work which is only adding to the financial burden of raising 3 children, school fees and the like as well as building their new house (which they may have to put on hold until both Katelyn and Matt can be working full time again). 

It's been proven that stress has so many detrimental effects on the body and we want Katelyn to be able to recover as quickly as possible. So, anything we can do to relieve some of the stress in her life we hope can help her along a quicker recovery.