Help Tavis Through her Cancer Journey

I’m writing this on behalf of my best friend. Someone who means the world to me and to so many others. If you know Tavis, you know that she’s the kind of person who shows up for everyone. She’s an incredible mom to her three girls, Lucy, Harriet, and Olive, a dedicated teacher, wife, and somehow also a doctoral student on top of it all! She’s strong, thoughtful, and someone people can always count on.

Over the past several months, she’s been facing something no one should have to, treatment for stage 3C colon cancer. She had major surgery back in September to remove the tumor and part of her colon. Unfortunately her cancer had spread to 13 lymph nodes and the surrounding veins, so 6 months of chemotherapy and a year of immunotherapy was required.

Tavis has handled this all with more strength and grace than I can even begin to describe, but the reality is, this has been really hard. Her chemotherapy treatments, especially the FOLFOX regimen, have come with some really intense side effects, particularly neuropathy (nerve pain and numbness), hair loss, cold sensitivity, nausea, loss of strength and extreme fatigue. These side effects have made it impossible for her to keep working. She recently had to make the incredibly difficult decision to take unpaid time off from work so that she can focus on getting through the rest of her chemo treatments and also give her body time to heal.

As you can imagine, the loss of income on top of the ongoing medical care has created a financial strain on her family. This fundraiser is to help cover lost wages and to support the treatments (not covered by insurance) that she needs for managing the side effects, especially the neuropathy caused by chemotherapy.

My hope is that with our help she can focus on recovery instead of financial stress. If you’re able to give, it would mean so much. And if you can’t, sharing this or just keeping her and her husband Dan, and their three girls in your thoughts is just as meaningful. No one likes to ask for help but if anyone deserves to be surrounded by support right now, it’s her!

Thank you for reading and for all of your love and support.

-Melissa Hill