Help Kristen kick Leukemia

As you might know, in October 2019 I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at the age of 25. In February 2020, I completed chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant at UC Davis in Sacramento, CA. After returning to my home in Montana, completing college and starting work full time, my cancer has returned again. This time, the most viable option is a form of cell therapy called CAR-T. This type of therapy was only recently approved and can be a huge struggle for health insurance to cover, as it can cost millions of dollars to produce, so I will be opting for a clinical trial. That being said, I will still have a significant increase in medical bills, I will need to travel to California, and am unable to work for an unknown period of time. Luckily I will be able to stay with family for the majority of treatment, but might need to pay for lodging closer to the hospital for short periods of time. My partner, Taylor, will be keeping his job in Bozeman to try and keep our living situation secure and maintain some semblance of normalcy for our family. Taylor and my parents will be taking short stints of unpaid time off to travel and support me; a donation will go towards some of these expenses as well as medical bills and other necessities.

People always ask how they can help, and the answer is that funds that can be used for anything are more helpful than gift cards or other items. I really hope this treatment is able to secure me a little more time with the people I love.

I keep a blog at kristenvardanega.com and share updates on my instagram at @krisstem if you want to follow along.