***ADDED: OUR SOCIAL MEDIA LISTED HERE: supportshannon.com***

In August of 2024 Shannon Dawson, a mother of 2 and a happy wife was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal cancer and given a year to live. She applied for Social Security the day she was diagnosed and was told she was automatically approved, but the paperwork had to process.

Five months later, she can no longer speak or walk and we still had not heard from Social Security. In the meantime, we missed nearly a year of income caring for her, as she needed 24/7 care.

Her illness had been affecting her deeply for nearly 15 years, but she couldn't get doctors to listen when she said she was sick. They called her a faker, a pill seeker. Even after she had a cancerous thyroid removed, there was no follow up care. She had a major heart attack and 2 comas, all of which is now easily explained by her cancer, which they refused to take seriously.

Every step of our journey has felt like the system just slapping us in the face. Every resource to help is out of funds, or we don't qualify over a tiny technicality, or some other one in a million causes that never happens except this one time, just to us. To her.

When we did her benefit party, the venue we paid and contracted to host, cancelled 3 days before the show, knowing it was a cancer benefit. Not one of our local friends or family even came. A few blessed souls bought tickets but didn't come, but that left us, Shannon's family standing alone during her tribute.

Public assistance has on three occasions messed up our case, so we waited almost 2 months with no food benefits, having to spend what little cash we have on food, meaning rent and bills didn't get paid. THREE TIMES.

Then, Black Hills Energy had been giving us a discount because of Shannon's cancer and after she died, they had just saved the difference and dropped the entire balance on our account after she died.

We also were blessed when Catholic Charities gave us $1000 toward the Black Hills bill, but the next month, Black Hills did a whole rearranging and re-figuring on our account, and now we owe over $2000 somehow.

We were supposed to be interviewed by KKTV about the venue that stole from us, which would have helped our fundraising a lot. The day before they agreed to come they cancelled.

We tried reaching out on social media, but we seem to be invisible. Many people have made hundreds of thousands FAKING cancer and we can barely stay afloat with an actual true story that is just pure pain and injustice.

Then in January, despite our best efforts staying by her side night and day, her cancer progressed very quickly and she died on January 8, 2025, surrounded by her family.

We received a call from Social Security the day after she died to finalize her first payment. Since she had already passed, it was cancelled. We are in the process of applying for her back pay, but it's a long process and we are not even guaranteed to get it. And even if we do, it will be months if not over a year before we actually see any payment.

Since that time, Dad was fired with no cause or notice for being a widow because a coworker who was a widow had an issue with another widow being there.

It really feels like nearly the entire universe is aligning against our family. We shout into the void and almost no one notices.

Now we are facing eviction and our utilities being cut off in three weeks. Black Hills want $2500, we owe $2400 in back rent and Xfinity want another $300.

Meanwhile, our roof is leaking which is causing our floor to rot and fall in. Our washer no longer spins, so we have to hand wash laundry. Our car is barely functioning and needs major repairs that we cannot possibly afford. We are really barely hanging on by a tiny thread.

Please help us in any way you can. Please donate, even $1 helps, but if you can't donate, please share our social links and often.

If you wish to help by sharing, please share each link separately. Share our TikTok, or share our YouTube, but if you just share supportshannon.com, it never gets any clicks.

If you wish to really help, share a specific post or video of ours and maybe a personal message like "These are my friends, what is happening to them is so unfair."

And please, subscribe to all of our social media channels and profiles. The more we have, the better we do with the algorithm and the closer we are to being able to monetize, which would help a lot with our lost income.

Please visit supportshannon.com for a full list of our socials and contact methods.

supportshannon.com

And please, share again and again.