My name is Renée MacDonald and I am a mom of 4 amazing kids. My oldest son, Connor, and his girlfriend, Ashley, have been together for 6 1/2 years. This past October, Ashley found a lump in her breast. After multiple MRIs, CT scans, and a biopsy, Ashley was officially diagnosed with stage 3, triple-negative breast cancer; she is only 26 years old. Her mom has breast cancer and has the gene mutation RAD51D. Ashley went through genetic testing and it was found that she has the same gene mutation. This gene mutation also increases the risk of ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancers. We are thankful that Ashley is being treated at one of the best hospitals in the country, Mass General Hospital. Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive and difficult-to-treat type of cancer. Ashley's oncologist at MGH, however, has a lot of experience with this type of cancer and has seen good results with the chemotherapy regimen that she has started Ashley on. This chemo regimen has 2 parts. Part 1 is 12 weeks long and includes the use of Taxol, Carboplatin, and Keytruda (immunotherapy). The second part is 8 weeks long and includes the use of Adriamycin, Cytoxan (which they refer to as the "red devil"), and Keytruda. The plan is for Ashley to have surgery after the completion of chemotherapy.

Our family's hearts are heavy knowing what Ashley has to go through, and we worry about the medical bills that will be coming in. We don't want Ashley and Connor to have the added stress of paying what will most likely be an extraordinary amount of money at a time where the price of health care is skyrocketing. Ashley currently has MassHealth for coverage.