Dear Everyone,

Our beloved friend and family member, Kimberly MacKinnon, a devoted wife and loving mom, needs our urgent help and support. Kim has been quietly and courageously fighting cancer since 2018 when she was diagnosed with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Sadly, despite several surgeries and three long series of chemotherapy, Kim’s cancer has now spread to the lymph nodes near her heart and to her lungs, putting her at stage 4. There is nothing more that standard cancer care can offer her, but there is hope. Kim’s cancer is one that can be beaten, even at stage 4, through immunotherapy, advanced genetic testing and advanced drugs.

This treatment uses Kim’s own tumors, currently frozen and stored, to identify every single genetic mutation involved in her cancer. It then employs specific drugs, called antibody drug conjugates to target each mutation and combines these with immunotherapy drugs which help the body's immune system to effectively identify and destroy cancer cells. It’s a groundbreaking and successful therapy. We are desperately trying to raise the $60,000 needed for this treatment as it is Kim’s best possible chance to beat this horrible disease.

These advanced treatments are both FDA-Approved and available here in Canada, but because they are not covered by our healthcare system, they are only accessible by those who are very well off. Kim and her husband Andrew cannot begin to afford this. Nor can they afford to travel for extended periods to parts of the world where these treatments are gaining use in standard care. The time has come to humbly ask for your help.

Those of you who know Kim know that she is a beautiful, kind, and caring person whose generosity and compassion come straight from the heart. She has inspired many, putting herself through school for many years as a single parent and instilling community-mindedness in her daughters. Kim has helped thousands to overcome various mental health struggles and to gain access to funding for disabilities while serving her community as a therapist for 17 years. Kim may even have helped you or someone you know!

Once a certified fitness instructor, Kim now struggles to maintain enough energy even to dust the furniture. Tragically, her cancer has forced her to retire early, and unprepared, from a career she only began later in life, creating intense financial hardship, and Andrew has had to take on extra jobs to make ends meet, minimizing his availability to help Kim. The levels of stress and uncertainty Kim is facing are enormous and so very detrimental to her health. She urgently needs our help. Money should be the last thing in the world anyone has to worry about when battling a metastatic cancer, especially within the confines of our health care system, where many approved medications and therapies are not covered.

The goal of creating this fund is to help pay for the immunotherapy, advanced genetic testing, and drugs Kim needs to put an end to her cancer and regain her life. Kim would like to one day share her story to help others who are also facing cancer. Let’s help Kim get back on her feet, and back to helping others!

If you can contribute to help Kim beat her cancer, we her family, friends, and community will accept your generosity and support with love and gratitude. Thank you for anything you can do to contribute and to share this GoFundMe. Kim wishes to thank everyone for their support and asks that you continue to send love, well wishes and prayers as she moves through this most dif-ficult time of her life. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us keep Kim in our lives.

Sincerely,

Kim’s family, friends, and community