Support Yvette Fight Breast Cancer

Yvette Meely-Barney, our very dear friend, talented colleague, and IATSE sister of 18 years was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Yvette has an amazing positive attitude and has chosen to work as long as she can through her treatment to help her husband, Walter, to continue to support her two beautiful children Solara (who is 5), and Gianni (who is 3). This will allow her to be surrounded by the love and support of her coworkers, as well as provide her with an important sense of “normalcy” and routine that is familiar and can be a positive distraction from worry.

We all realize that this will not be an easy journey; however, with the combination of Yvette’s optimism, sense of humor, our support, and her treatment protocol...she expects to have a full recovery. There will be obstacles to face...one of which will be increased financial demands, which can be extremely stressful. This is where we would like to help support her recovery in an important way. By raising $30,000 through this GoFundMe Campaign, we can help to alleviate her financial stress and free up more energy for Yvette and her family to focus on her healing and recovery.

Any size donation that you can make will help support Yvette with any medical related costs not covered by insurance, as well as the additional expenses she will have to incur outside of medical costs. The following is her treatment plan and other supportive measures that will allow for reduced stress for Yvette and her family:

~ 20 weeks of chemotherapy
~ 1 month off of the chemotherapy to allow it to take it’s full effect
~ This will be followed by a diagnostic MRI to evaluate the mass
~ Surgery to remove the mass
~ Radiation therapy following the surgery
~ Walter will be taking time off his work as a surgical technician during Yvette’s surgery and to be           with her to provide her after care (thus reducing the family’s income)
~ Solara and Gianni will need childcare while Yvette is recovering from surgery so that she can get the rest required for healing
~ Yvette will use accupuncture to help alleviate the uncomfortable side-effects of
chemotherapy, radiation, and to assist with her recovery from surgery
~ She would also like to use the new “Cold Cap” technology, which helps chemotherapy patients keep their hair. It is extremely important for patients to be able to feel like “themselves” during such a difficult time when they are fighting to feel good and maintain a sense of normalcy. This will be as important for Yvette’s children as it is for her. She does not want her children to feel worried or frightened as she goes through the treatment process.
~ To reduce the time off work that Walter will be taking, Yvette will need to utilize Uber to get to and from her treatments and appointments
~ It will be important for Yvette to eat organic healthy food so that her entire system is supported with high-quality nutrition due to the toxins and medications that will be in her system from the treatment process
~ It has also been advised that she install a water filtration system in her home to reduce additional toxicity from the chlorinated city water

As you can see, Yvette has an important, and at times, overwhelming journey ahead of her. We want to support her so that she can take on this journey with every possible advantage for a full recovery with as little stress as possible! Absolutely any donation amount makes a difference and is deeply appreciated!

Last, it is important that Yvette is not overwhelmed by well-intentioned calls and texts from friends in the industry. She will be extremely busy caring for herself and her family during this time. In addition, honestly, it is not good for her to be constantly reminded of what she is going through by answering a lot of questions, or feeling constantly obligated to respond to calls and texts. She knows that we all care deeply for her and will be sending her positive healing energy. So again, to create less stress for her, we will update this page weekly with the progress of her treatments and healing. By referring to this page and not contacting her directly, you will be giving her the personal space and additional energy that she will need during this challenging time.