Help Kelly Trullinger Fight Stage 3A HER2-Positive, Triple-Positive Breast Cancer

On February 11, 2026, our family’s life changed forever. We learned that our mom, Kelly Trullinger, had an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Here is her story:

The Woman We Cannot Imagine Life Without

At just 48 years old, Kelly is facing one of the hardest battles of her life. She is a wife of 22 years, a mother of quadruplets, a teacher, a school leader, and someone who has spent her life caring for others.

For 18 years, she has raised four children born at the exact same time: three girls and one boy. We are now entering our senior year of high school. Throughout our lives, our mom has always put us first. Somehow, through the chaos and challenges that come with raising quadruplets, she has always made each of us feel seen, loved and helped in every aspect of our lives.

With that being said, none of us would be where we are today without her.

A Difficult Treatment Journey

Kelly has already endured six months of intense and aggressive chemotherapy. She has also undergone a double mastectomy during which, 16 lymph nodes were removed, 5 of which turned out to be cancer positive.

Devastatingly, the chemotherapy did not work the way her doctors had hoped. There was no slowing of the cancer’s growth and no shrinkage of the cancer cells. We realized that her cancer has proven to be more difficult to treat than we prayed it would be.

After surgery, we received additional devastating news. Kelly was diagnosed with Stage 3A triple-positive breast cancer, meaning her cancer is HER2-positive, estrogen-receptor positive, and progesterone-receptor positive. Her HER2-positive diagnosis helps explain why the chemotherapy she received did not produce the response her doctors had hoped for.

Kelly has also been diagnosed with Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) III, the highest category of residual cancer burden following treatment before surgery. This places her at a significantly higher risk of recurrence and means that, even after surgery, her treatment is far from over.

Although the cancer that could be removed surgically has been removed, Kelly now faces an extensive course of additional treatment. She will need radiation, hormone therapy, and IV cancer treatment through her port every three weeks for an entire year.

Her doctors have also recommended continued close monitoring, including regular PET scans and brain MRIs, and additional surgery may be necessary in the future.

There is still a very long road ahead, and our family is taking it one treatment, one appointment, and one day at a time. Her fight is far from over.

Through all of this, she has been unable to work.

A Life Spent Caring for Others

For more than two decades, Kelly has dedicated her life to serving children and families in Charlotte County. She has taught kindergarten through fourth grade, served as a Lead Teacher and Dean of Students at Vineland Elementary, and worked with students with significant emotional and behavioral needs in exceptional student education classrooms.

She has spent most of her life supporting students, families, and teachers while raising four children of her own. She has always been the person who shows up. Now, we are asking our community to show up for her.

Now, She Needs Us

Cancer has placed an enormous financial burden on our family. While Kelly is unable to work, the costs of medical treatment, insurance, medications, radiation, transportation, potential additional surgeries, regular checkups, and everyday household expenses and bills continue to pile up.

Kelly has always taken care of everyone else and rarely asks for help, even when she needs it. Even now, in the middle of the hardest fight of her life, her first instinct is still to worry about others.

That is why asking for help for our mom is so difficult for us. But she needs it.

She has spent her entire life taking care of others.

Now, she needs us to take care of her.

We Need More Time With Our Mom

As her daughter, there are moments when this still does not feel real, everything has happened so quickly and it is insane looking back at where we were last year. My family and I could've never imagined that this would be our lives within the next year.

My mom is only 48. She should be helping us pick out dresses for prom and preparing to watch her four children graduate from high school. She should be looking forward to the years ahead with her husband and watching her children grow into adults.

Instead, she's stuck fighting a disease that prevents her from being apart of these special moments.

There is so much life ahead of her that we are not ready to imagine without her. We need her at our graduations. We need her at future holidays, birthdays, and weddings. We need her advice, her laugh, our family dinners, and all the ordinary moments we once took for granted.

We need more time with our mom.

Kelly has spent her life showing up for other people.

She has raised four children.

She has taught countless students.

She has supported families and teachers throughout our community.

Now, it is our turn to show up for her.

Donations will help our family cover Kelly’s medical treatment and the everyday expenses we are facing, especially while she is unable to work. Every contribution, no matter the size, helps give our family one less thing to worry about and allows Kelly to focus on treatment, healing, and her family.

If you cannot donate, please share Kelly’s story. A share can reach someone who knows Kelly, knows our family, has experienced cancer themselves, or simply understands what it means to want more time with someone you love.

To everyone who has already checked on Kelly, sent a message, brought food, offered help, prayed for her, or simply asked how she is doing:

Thank you. ❤️

Your kindness has carried our family through some incredibly difficult days.

Kelly has spent her life taking care of everyone else.

Now, she needs us to take care of her.

Please help us give this mother of quadruplets the support she needs to get through treatment, focus on healing, and continue living the life she has spent so many years building for her family and her community.

Thank you for standing beside Kelly and our family during the fight of our lives. ❤️

With love,

Ava Trullinger

and the Trullinger Family