Help Sharron Weather the Storm

When you hear the phrase “She’ll weather the storm” you probably think of someone who’s dealing with health issues – maybe their own, maybe someone they care for, someone who’s handling a messy divorce or a battle over what’s best for their kids, maybe someone going through financial struggles or the death of a loved one. It takes a strong person to endure hard times like these and Sharron Arnold McLean is the strongest person I know.

If you’ve made it to this Go Fund Me page you probably know Sharron - or maybe someone who knows Sharron told you about her - and you want to give a donation to support one of the most determined, formidable and resilient people on earth. Sharron has endured every one of those storms, most of them more than once, and she’s done it with grace. Don’t get me wrong, she’s fierce! She’ll stand up for what she wants or who she loves against any force that tries to knock her down. She’ll fight her way past anyone who tries to tell her she “can’t” do something she has to do. She’d bite the face off a badger to protect her kids! But, somehow, she does all those things with so much inner strength, decency and honor that even if the outcome isn’t what most people would consider a “WIN”, her spirit is intact and she faces whatever comes next with the same tenacity.


It’s an understatement to say that Sharron’s been through a lot in the past few years. In December, 2014, tragically and unexpectedly, Sharron’s brother Kevin passed away. Kevin was so much more than her brother – he was the one who’d been by her side caring for their Mom. He was her champion! In every fight of her life, whether she was right or wrong, Kevin was always on her side. Just a few months later, she lost her Mom after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer that Sharron had nursed her through with all her might. She worked so hard raising the money to buy hearing aids so her Mom could hear all the visiting kids and grandkids tell her how much they loved her. Losing two of the most important people in her life was devastating and it would have been easy to understand if Sharron needed a break. Instead, she was back at work and taking care of the rest of her family when she had an accident that damaged her hand so badly even after surgery she couldn’t go back to the work she had been doing. That didn’t defeat her either. Sharron got herself together and was working a new job when she suffered a heart attack last spring. I don’t know how she does it but she came through the hospitalization, home recovery and all the life changes brought on by that storm too!

Earlier this month Sharron was diagnosed with Stage IV Small Cell Carcinoma in her lungs that's spread to her spine and femurs. Sounds ominous and daunting, I know but, this is Sharron. She will fight and with the help of her family and friends she'll beat this too! 

She's got the best motivation in the world to refuse to be defeated ONE MORE TIME! While Sharron was facing all the struggles and the almost unbearable losses of the past five years she was also raising a teenage daughter!  I don’t know Kayla very well (yet) but I do know from everything I've seen and heard - she's very much like her mother. She’s beautiful, courageous, headstrong, ready and willing to do whatever it takes; and Life is taking her up on that. At seventeen Kayla has also suffered the loss of her grandmother and her Uncle Kevin, she's helped her mom through surgery and a heart attack and in the past three weeks she's faced this diagnosis, passed her driving test and become the main source of income at home. So, instead of deciding whether to spend her paycheck on makeup or a pedicure like most girls her age, she’s juggling the electric bill and the car insurance premium. Your contribution to this fund is going to take that pressure off of a terrific kid who’s doing her best to fill some VERY BIG SHOES! You’ll be helping with the daily living expenses for Sharron and Kayla while Sharron goes through an aggressive course of chemotherapy.

I want Kayla to be free to spend time with her mother not worrying about paying bills and buying food and most of all I want her to learn that while the things her mother has endured, fought through and survived have made her the amazing person she is today, it’s OK to let people who care help you through the hard times.

Please give what you can and check back here for updates on Sharron's progress.