Help Shelly Heal Cancer

Hello friends and family,

I come to you today because so many of you have asked how you can help our family in this difficult time. Kevin and I have decided that, outside of prayer, the greatest way you can support our family is financially.

Background

As you know, I’ve recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the 3rd time in 2 ½ years. On the first two occurrences, I chose traditional oncology treatments of chemotherapy and surgery. I’m grateful I chose those as I believe they saved my life. However, the more chemotherapy I received, the more toxic it became to my body until I reached the point where chemo was threatening my life. Of the last 4 times I received chemo, I was hospitalized 3 times and needed emergency medical care on the 4th.

The Problem

When I was diagnosed the 3rd time, it became apparent that my battle with ovarian cancer was a chronic one. While chemo saved my life the first 2 times, it couldn’t keep the cancer from coming back. I now know that with recurrent, late stage ovarian cancer, it doesn’t keep the cancer from coming back for anyone. While chemo kills the tumors, it doesn’t kill the cancer stem cells (the seeds of the cancer) and the cancer continues to grow back. For women like me, the cancer recurs every 5 ½ months.

If I continued on this path, I would spend 6 months getting chemo, approximately 6 months recovering from chemo - only to repeat it again...and again...until either the cancer or the chemo killed me. At 10 years, this cancer has a 100% mortality rate, a 92% mortality rate at 8 years, and a 67% mortality rate at 5 years. This is hard to hear, I know. I’m sorry to be so frank about such a serious topic. But, I want you to understand the reasoning behind my choices and behind this request.

Answers to New Prayers

After facing this grave reality, I decided to pray and look for a different path. I knew the traditional path couldn’t cure my cancer. I also suspected that I couldn’t live through many more rounds of chemo and that I certainly wouldn’t have any quality of life getting chemo every 6 months. This keen awareness led me to dive full force into exploring alternative treatment options. I quit working and began reading medical journals full time in search for any alternative methods with potential for success. I prayed and asked God to supernaturally expand my knowledge, intelligence, discernment and wisdom and I believe He did.

The New Treatment Direction

I partnered with an Integrative Oncologist - a brilliant doctor who used to be a traditional Oncologist but left in order to incorporate alternative methods into her practice. Together, we created a comprehensive, alternative treatment plan that , thus far, is working and has kept me off chemo. Before beginning this natural protocol, my cancer markers had grown by 800%. The first month on the protocol, the growth slowed to 46% and after the 2nd full month, the growth has slowed to only 6%! When I used to hear the words “Alternative Cancer Care”, I suspected it was whimsical, careless or “woo woo”. But, this plan is surprisingly science based. Additionally, I'm getting monthly checks of my cancer markers and staying in touch with my traditional oncologist. I’ve not written off chemotherapy completely. If there comes a time that I need it, I will get it.

Benefits of Living Life Fully

At the very least, this alternative plan improves my quality of life while here on earth. I’m able to be present in my family life. I’m able to go to my kids’ races and go camping. I’m able to go to gardens and coffee shops. I’m able to go to church and women’s gatherings. I’m able to write, read, think, and share. I’m able to be a wife, mother, friend, daughter, and community member. I’m no longer just a cancer patient. This Christmas will be my first chemo-free Christmas in 3 years. This is priceless for me and my family. In addition to improving my quality of life, in the very best case scenario, this plan has the potential to do what traditional oncology cannot do - to kill the cancer stem cells and STOP cancer from coming back over and over.

The Challenge

While all of this sounds promising (because it is!), it's quite time consuming and very expensive. I cannot work and, without going into debt, we simply cannot afford this treatment plan.

As you can imagine, fighting cancer for more than 2 ½ years has taken a serious toll on our lives - mentally, emotionally, relationally, and certainly financially. I’ve barely been able to work. Because Kevin has had to carry such a heavy load at home, he hasn’t had the capacity to expand his business or income. All of our expenses have been higher as we’ve spent so much time in crisis mode. And, of course, we’ve had a tremendous increase in our medical expenses. Since my 1st diagnosis, we’ve personally spent approximately $50,000 out of pocket on my cancer care. Up until this point, we’ve been able to manage that because we live a financially conservative life (thank you Dave Ramsey!), but we’ve depleted our reserves and we can’t manage it alone anymore. So here we are... asking our community to help ease our burden. We’re asking you to help carry our very heavy load.

How You Can Help Keep Me Off Chemo

Which brings us here, today to this request. I'm requesting that, if you're able, to please partner with us financially. Partner with us to help keep me off chemo - to help keep me out of the hospital and actively involved in my families’ lives.

We’re asking for $41,500. I know this is a lot of money. This will fund about 50% of the 2 year plan that I need to be on (it takes at least 2 years to heal cancer naturally). It will cover our costs for the next several months so we have time, with God’s blessings, to increase our income and reduce our expenses and hopefully be able to afford year 2 on our own.

If 415 people gave $100 each- we could meet our goal today. And that would be amazing. Even if you wanted to break that $100 gift down into 2 or 3 different donations, that would be a HUGE blessing to our family to know the necessary funds will be available when we need them.

We realize that for many people, $100 isn’t possible, but $50 or $25 is. We appreciate a gift of any size. Every little bit adds up!

We also know that some of you reading this can give more than $100. Perhaps you can give $500 or even $1000.

Please pray about our need and help as you are called to. Don’t give out of guilt or any sense of burden. And if you want to support us financially, but cannot at this time, we are asking you to pray for our finances - that God would supernaturally expand our finances just as He supernaturally expanded my wisdom, knowledge, and discernment.

The Nitty Gritty Breakdown for People Who Like Alllll the Details

If you’re looking at that number and wondering - “How does it cost $83,000 to heal cancer naturally? Please break this down for me!” - then this section is for you. If you don’t care about details, skip right over this section!

Here’s a breakdown of the costs of 2 years of treatment:

Annual or Non-recurring expenses:

$650 medically supervised detox

$650 new patient fees

$6700 home treatment units

$4250 Medical Deductible

$1200 Physical Therapy

$13,620 a year of IV treatments

Monthly expenses:

$435/mo doctor visits

$325/mo home injections

$495/mo home treatments and supplements

$100-$250/mo extra grocery cost for my special diet

$150/mo body work

Total Cost of Year 1 - $45,130-$46,930

Total Cost of Year 2 - $37,130-$38,930

Total Cost of a 2 Year Treatment Plan - approximately $83,000

This looks expensive….because it is! AAHHH!!! However, natural cancer care is approximately 10% of the cost of traditional oncology. My first year of traditional treatment cost about $600,000! So, this is really a budget based treatment plan - it’s just completely out of pocket.

Wrapping it Up

I know that not everyone reading this is able to help. I also know that some of you can help a little and some of you can help a lot. Please give as you feel led and, no matter what, please continue to pray for our family. Pray for complete healing and pray for financial provision. Also, please consider sharing this campaign with your friends and family.

Thank you for hearing our story and considering our needs. Thank you for supporting and encouraging us along the way. There are no words to express my gratitude to all of you. We could not do this without all of you.

If you would like updates on my health along the way, follow my FB page - Shelly Longenecker.