In December 2025, I celebrated being cancer-free.

Two months later, I found out it came back.

I am Wendy Gordon, Producer at Work Productions & Argentine Tango Dancer. I need your help so I can keep fighting.

THE ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS

2023. Stage 1c Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer, with a 10% chance of coming back. I had very good odds.

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.

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.

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.

In November 2025, I had my final surgery.

In December, I got the all-clear. Every scan was good. I was cancer-free.

I went back to work, started to rebuild my finances, and eagerly looked forward to getting on with my life.

THE RECURRENCE

Two months later, I felt a lump. The biopsy came back with the words I never expected to hear again: metastatic carcinoma.

My life came screeching to a halt. Every work plan, every travel plan, every dancing plan, even my retirement plan. All stopped.

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.

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.

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.

And unlike the first time, I realize I cannot do this alone.

I need your help.

WHO I AM

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.

I love what I do.

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.

I need both production and tango to feel like myself.

Cancer has taken both from me, and I intend to get them back.

THE ROAD AHEAD

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.

I won't know the prognosis until pathology comes back after surgery.

Getting well is now my full-time job.

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.

HOW YOUR DONATION HELPS

Your support will go directly toward:

I have never been comfortable asking for help.

I've always been the person behind the scenes, quietly making things work. I am the fixer!

But through this journey, I've learned that letting people in and asking for help is its own kind of strength.

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.

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.

With love and gratitude,

Wendy Gordon