In Honor of Zoey Dobransky's Life

Hello, I'm Morganne and this is the story of my younger sister Zoey's past few years. We've always been close and have become more so as adults, mothers and wives in our own right. Zoey is not only my sister, she is my best friend. We are raising funds to help offset medical costs, travel expenses, and to make sure that Zoey's boys, Asher and Shilo, are taken care of.

Zoey’s story is full of pain, hardship, tears, fight, love, determination and hope. It started December 30th, 2019. Her second child was born and on that very same day that this beautiful baby boy was given life, Zoey’s was about to crumble around her. She was in tremendous pain and found out she had cancer at just 20 years old. She was with her newborn son for one day, before she was transported from Lowville to Rochester, NY. Here is where her battle started.

 

Zoey found out she had a rare cancer called, Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (DSRCT). It’s a cancer that starts in the soft tissue and quickly spreads throughout the body. Her husband, David was deployed to Afghanistan at the time, so they were working on getting him home. The doctors started a treatment plan but didn’t expect her to have much longer to live. She was able to see her two boys, Asher and Shilo. She started her chemo and was in the hospital for a little over a month before she was finally able to come home. Thankfully, her body was responding well to the treatment. Her tumors started to shrink, and her pain was finally manageable. This started her long journey back and forth between home and hospitals.

 

Zoey was then scheduled for surgery in North Carolina. She endured a 12-hour surgery, where her doctors extracted 177 tumors and then gave her a wash of hot chemo before closing her up. She made it through the surgery and recovered from that, to then start back up on chemo. After her chemo treatments were done, she had radiation and a stem cell transplant. After all of this, they let her know that there was finally no sign of disease. The doctors wouldn’t state that she was “in remission”, they just called it (NSD) No Sign of Disease. This was a two-year long battle. She made it to Shilo’s second birthday and Asher will be 4 soon.

 

Zoey made it to almost 6 months without treatment, just her regular scans, bloodwork and checkups every couple of months. Then she started to feel the pain again recently. She couldn’t get out of bed, she could barely walk. She had to fight just to be seen by any doctors, where they kept telling her there was nothing wrong. She was making her way to Rochester to try to be seen by a doctor, but she couldn’t make the 3-hour drive. They had to pull over and call the ambulance where she was taken to Syracuse. They did scans and saw signs that her cancer might be back. She was then transported to Rochester where her oncologist was located. After scans, bloodwork, a spinal tap, a bone biopsy and nerve testing, they discovered that her cancer was back in her spinal fluid and in the lining of her brain. This time, the doctors gave her 3-6 months to live, even with treatment.

 

Zoey is just 22 years old, but she is the strongest, most loving and caring person I have ever met. She is a fighter. She is a Mom, wife, sister, daughter and friend. We still have hope. She is loved by so many. We will fight along side her, for her entire journey with this disease. She deserves more time. She deserves so much more.

For those of you that don't know, Diana Chamberlain is our Aunt. She is the beneficiary of this account, however she will be helping set up Trust Funds for Asher and Shilo. So, all of the proceeds from these donations are going into the funds for Zoey's children. This is what she wanted, for the boys to be taken care of.