Help Rachel and Alex Kick Breast Cancer's Butt

This is most definitely a job that I never wanted or even fathomed to be charged with but no the less here I am. My name is Lynn, I'm Alex's mom, and I am writing to you today on behalf of my beloved Daughter-in-Love, Rachel. Rachel has just, last week, at the all too young age of 32, been diagnosed with an aggressive form of invasive breast carcinoma/cancer, suspected Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) and already the medical bills are piling up. My favorite young couple needs our help and support.

You often hear mothers talk and act like no girl is good enough for their son, well, that’s not me at all. Rachel has been nothing but a gift to my family since the day she and Alex met. She’s the kind of woman that makes my son want to be a better man and no mother can ask for more than that.

For the last 10 years Rachel has been on a journey towards her calling. The exact path wasn’t always clear but when it came into focus there was no doubt that counseling kids with trauma was where she belonged. After Rachel and Alex got married in 2018, she finished the hard work of obtaining her Bachelors Degree, then continued moving forward to complete her Masters. The last five years, the first five years of their marriage, Rachel and Alex have both worked so hard and sacrificed so much, working together for Rachel to achieve her goals. Alex working two jobs so Rachel could intern and study, while Rachel’s sweet parents helped financially to make ends meet. And like many young couples struggling to make their way in the world, they didn’t have medical insurance.

But the path was clear, and the goal was in sight, it was just months away from Rachel completing her Masters when she noticed a tight spot and small lump in her left breast. Swamped with school, work and life in general, Rachel wrote it off to hormones and kept trudging towards her degree. But then just a few weeks before graduation the tightness, the lump and the new painful symptoms could no longer be ignored so Alex took Rachel to the ER.

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of doctors visits, blood samples, biopsies and scans. All while finishing up her counseling hours and taking final exams.

Hearing the words “it’s cancer” at the young age of 32, days before graduation was surreal to say the least. Like a gut punch when your just getting started on a journey. The treatment is threefold, chemo and hormone therapy…its a mixed bag but Rachel’s cancer is responsive to hormones, which can be utilized to slow the growth but will more than likely make her sterile…then a mastectomy and the removal of the adjacent affected lymph nodes, and finally radiation.

So after a short reprieve to pretend life is normal, walk a stage and receive her Master’s Diploma, Rachel and Alex find themselves back in, as she puts it, “cancer land”. And here’s what we know as of now…We know that it is an aggressive form of invasive breast carcinoma/cancer, stage 3, that is has metastasized and is in some of the adjacent axillary lymph nodes.

This week there are appointments to have birth control implants removed and another to have a non hormonal birth control implanted. Wednesday there will be an hours long bone scan, Thursday cat scans and Friday an echocardiogram…all to find out how far the cancer has spread. Then I assume we will reassess with the new information, get a port placed for chemo and start the fight.

Life is forever changed.

It's so hard to watch someone who gives of herself so freely, work so hard to achieve her goals, only to be stopped in her tracks just as she is starting. But Rachel and Alex are fighters. I honestly think they know no other way, its just who they are…survivors.

But they need our help. With no insurance, Alex working two jobs and Rachel unable to work the new job she had just landed...they feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Any money received will not only help pay the many medical bills, but also allow Alex to let some work hours go, so he can accompany Rachel at the many doctors appointments and to help nurse her back to health at home. To be honest I'm not even sure how to gage how much to fundraise for as this is all still so new. We don't even yet know the full extent of the cancer...but what we do know is heavy enough.

Rachel and Alex have always put so much positivity into the world. They are both fun loving, free spirited people. Neither of them have ever met a stranger and would give the shirts off their backs to help anyone in need. Help me show them that what you put out into the world comes back to you. Help us lessen the weight on their shoulders so that they can both focus on the fight at hand...to beat this cancer and get back to living the life they have worked so hard to build.