Help support Steph and her family through cancer

*Update* Over the last few months Steph's quality of life has significantly decreased and most recently she has received some very hard news that her cancer has spread to her brain stem. Steph can barely walk due a fractured pelvis, sciatic pain, and swelling from lymphedema. She's on a pain pump, which is an intravenous supply of pain medicine. Steph needs a lot of help at home, so we're hoping to raise more funds so her husband Andrew can take long-term time off work to be with her and the kids. As Andrew is the sole income provider, taking this length of time off work will cause extreme financial burden for their family. Anything you can donate will be so appreciated - we hope it allows them time together as a family, and the removal of any stress due to finances at this very difficult time.

Steph is a 37 year old Mom of three young kids and on Christmas 2019 she was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer. It came as a shock to everyone who knows and loves her. Three months later she received even worse news: the cancer had unknowingly spread and she was now diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic triple negative breast cancer. She has been fighting for her future and her family's ever since.

Typically, the prognosis for Steph's specific stage of cancer is 1-3 years, but she remains stable, and her oncologist is optimistic that she has years to come. This is amazing news, but given the typical prognosis and the fact that we cannot know what the future brings, we want to ensure she is able to make beautiful memories with her three young children - Kennedy (8), Koston (6) and Connor (4) - over the next few years. She has always had a passion for travel and has dreamed of going to Hawaii with her husband, heading back to England to visit the surrogate child she delivered 6 months before her diagnosis, and experiencing Disney with her children. Under normal circumstances she would space these trips out over the course of many years to make them more affordable and realistic, but given her unfortunate prognosis, we want to make sure Steph can take these trips sooner rather than later.

 

Steph was fortunate to be the first person in London Ontario to receive a newly approved immunotherapy treatment specific to triple negative breast cancer. For the time being, it has worked at stabilizing her cancer, but if it fails there are no further treatment options beyond chemotherapy drugs. The money raised here will go first and foremost to clinical trials that she may be a candidate for in the future, and secondly to memory-making.

 

Any donation you can make to Steph's fund is so, so appreciated. If you know Steph, you know it is hard for her to accept this kind of help. But she also doesn't want to risk missing these precious opportunities. You would also know that Steph wouldn't - and doesn't - hesitate to help the people she loves when they are in need. This is our chance to help her in a small way. Together, we can make a big difference to Steph and her family.