My name is Sarah and Brittany Simms is my best friend. I have known Brittany for 12 years. In that time, I have seen her face more personal challenges than most people face in their lifetimes. Recently, Brittany was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her diagnosis acts as a stark reminder that there is not a magic maximum number of life threatening or heart wrenching cards someone will be dealt in their life. If there was, Brittany’s hand would have been full before I even met her.

Through everything from her father’s untimely death when she was just becoming an adult, to several chronic and acute life-threatening health issues, to unexpectedly becoming her mother’s primary caregiver a couple of years ago when she was diagnosed with dementia, Brittany has never asked for help. Since her cancer diagnosis, she has felt the weight and fear of how it has and will change her life for the foreseeable future. For the first time, she is asking for help and I am asking anyone who knows, loves, or feels touched by Brittany’s story to contribute what they can to make her life a little bit easier right now.

Brittany is the most empathetic, caring, considerate and truly beautiful person inside and out that I know. She is a caregiver by nature and trade. She works as a nurse at an infusion clinic, where she was inspired to practice because of her years of experience receiving life-changing infusion medication for her auto-immune bowel disease. Because of her bowel disease, she is unable to work full-time hours. She has been off of work completely since her schedule of cancer-related appointments, tests, and procedures began. Because of her part-time status, the disability benefits that she receives are minimal.

While Brittany was hopeful that her cancer could be dealt with relatively easily, results of her lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy at the end of November were not so promising. Her cancer has spread into the lymph and is at stage 3, which means she’ll require more invasive treatment and the difficult road ahead is long. In addition to needing to remain off of work to focus on her recovery, she must keep her stress-level to a minimum to avoid aggravating her chronic health issues. Her bowel-disease treatments have been off schedule as she deals with her cancer, and this presents another reason that she needs to make sure to minimize stress in her life right now. In the past, even without cancer, she has suffered medical emergencies that her body struggled to cope with in part due to stress, like a life-threatening liver abscess in 2015.

One job that Brittany cannot take a break from is caring for her mom. She also cares for her adorable but high needs dog, (princess) Buttercup. Buttercup brings a lot of love and positivity to Brittany’s life, but she takes after her "mom" in that she has health issues and unlike Brittany, MSP does not cover any of Buttercup’s medical costs. Brittany is lucky to have her extremely loving and supportive husband, Wilson by her side as emotional support and to help with some of her caregiving duties. However, as Wilson is their only source of income now, he cannot take the time off needed to support her in this way fully.

Times are tough for a lot of people right now, which makes asking for and donating money really hard. Any amount that you are able to share to help keep Brittany healthy enough to get through her cancer treatment as quickly and successfully as possible will make a difference. Knowing Brittany, I’m sure every dollar will make her cry with gratitude and even the act of contributing anything will bring needed positivity to her life.