We are coming to all of you with a great need. My cousin, Lauren , is sick and is fighting so hard for her family. Financially, things do not come to a stop, and she has had to stop working due to the chemotherapy and sickness. She is a single mom, raising her 2 children alone, and battling breast cancer, and still manages to keep a smile on her face! Today, her car was repossessed, and we are first striving to get that back so that she has transportation to the doctor and in case her children need her. Every little bit helps so much! I have asked her to explain exactly what she is going through, and I will add that here to keep you all up to date.

"I have stage IIB/stage 3 HER2 breast cancer. It’s a very aggressive type of cancer. It is capable of spreading, and if it does, it usually goes to a major organ: brain, lungs, liver, etc. I have had a port put in to receive chemotherapy. Since starting chemo, I’m on blood thinners. After my first chemo treatment, I had a blood clot from my port move to my jugular vein. I’ve had lymph nodes removed that had cancer cells. I’ve been hospitalized with pneumonia and a high white blood cell count; I was septic. A week after coming out of the hospital, I had to receive two pints of blood and had to postpone a week of chemo. Shortly after starting chemo and my first MRI, we found a small cyst on my brain. I’m now getting an MRI every three to four months to check on that and make sure it remains a benign cyst and not my breast cancer spreading. I’ve had many problems with my port not wanting to work correctly and will have to have that removed and replaced; it won’t last for the remainder of my chemotherapy."