<div>In December 2025, I celebrated being cancer-free.
</div>
<div>Two months later, I found out it came back.
</div>
<div>I am Wendy Gordon, Producer at Work Productions &amp; Argentine Tango Dancer. I need your help so I can keep fighting.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>THE ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS</strong>
</div>
<div>2023. Stage 1c Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer, with a 10% chance of coming back. I had very good odds.
</div>
<div>I didn't tell many people. I was afraid for my career, afraid I'd be seen as weak, and afraid of being a burden to my friends and family.
</div>
<div>Those two years were brutal: 8 surgeries - multiple mastectomies, reconstructions, and complications, plus a dangerous psychiatric reaction to medication.  And I did it pretty much alone. 
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Through all of it, I produced when I could between surgeries. As you might imagine, it took an enormous toll on my career and drained all of my savings.
</div>
<div>In November 2025, I had my final surgery.
</div>
<div>In December, I got the all-clear. Every scan was good. I was cancer-free.
</div>
<div>I went back to work, started to rebuild my finances, and eagerly looked forward to getting on with my life.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>THE RECURRENCE</strong>
</div>
<div>Two months later, I felt a lump. The biopsy came back with the words I never expected to hear again: <strong>metastatic carcinoma.</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>My life came screeching to a halt. Every work plan, every travel plan, every dancing plan, even my retirement plan. All stopped.
</div>
<div>This time it is much harder. My savings are gone. I'd lost my company health insurance, my surgeons were suddenly out of network. I had to start over: new insurance, new doctors, a new team to build a treatment plan for a recurrence that is anything but straightforward.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I consulted both MSK and the Mayo Clinic, and each proposed a different plan. Given the other chronic conditions I'm already managing, I chose Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota, for its holistic, coordinated, and curative approach.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>So now, with no savings left and no ability to work for the next 12 to 18 months, I've made the difficult decision to leave my home in Brooklyn and move to a place where I have no family and no support system, so that I can dedicate myself 100% to this fight.
</div>
<div>And unlike the first time, I realize I cannot do this alone.
</div>
<div>I need your help.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>WHO I AM</strong>
</div>
<div>I'm an advertising producer specializing in international productions. I've spent decades on sets around the world, solving problems and bringing creative visions to life. I'm proud of the career I built, the relationships I formed, and the work I produced. I'm known for my endless energy and my ability to make the impossible possible.
</div>
<div>I love what I do.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>And when I'm not producing, I'm known to be flitting around the world dancing Tango, where the connection and the music allow me to feel fully alive.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I need both production and tango to feel like myself.
</div>
<div>Cancer has taken both from me, and I intend to get them back.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>THE ROAD AHEAD</strong>
</div>
<div>Surgery first. Then radiation, chemotherapy, and a long year of drugs, physical therapy, and lymphedema treatment, ending with reconstructive surgery to repair the damage from radiation. 
</div>
<div>I won't know the prognosis until pathology comes back after surgery.
</div>
<div>Getting well is now my full-time job.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Here's the hard reality: even with insurance, I'm responsible for very large deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, and several of the procedures I need won't be covered, including new technologies developed at Mayo that will improve my survival and quality of life. The cutting-edge medication alone is $20,000 per month and so far I don't qualify for assistance.  And. I still need to pay rent, buy food, and keep the lights on, for a year I cannot work.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>HOW YOUR DONATION HELPS</strong>
</div>
<div>Your support will go directly toward:
</div>
<ul>
<li>Medical costs insurance won't cover: deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and uncovered treatments
</li>
<li>Basic living expenses: rent, food, gas, and utilities during the year I'm unable to work
</li>
<li>Treatment-related costs tied to ongoing care.
</li>
</ul>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>I have never been comfortable asking for help.
</div>
<div>I've always been the person behind the scenes, quietly making things work. I am the fixer!
</div>
<div>But through this journey, I've learned that letting people in and asking for help is its own kind of strength.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Thank you for reading my story, and for anything you can offer, whether it's a donation or simply sharing this with someone who might care. It means more than I can say.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Every dollar brings me closer to finishing this treatment, returning to my home and the work I love, being the best sister, aunt, daughter, and friend I can be and someday soon, getting back on the dance floor.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>With love and gratitude,</strong>
</div>
<div><strong>Wendy Gordon</strong>
</div>

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Help Wendy Gordon Fight Breast Cancer. Again.

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