Jetta Featherston's Fight for a Cure!

Jetta Featherston, a hometown hero, was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer after dedicating her life to her patients at Mabank Nursing Home.

During Covid, Jetta Featherston rarely left the side of her patients at Mabank Nursing Center neglecting her own family and needs. As the Director of Nursing, she stepped up and did what was necessary to fill in for sick nurses and worked around the clock to save the lives of the elderly who depended on them. She spent many months isolated with her patients to protect them and stood in for families who couldn’t visit their loved ones. She loves her patients more than anything!

Exhausted and still having to follow Covid mandates, Jetta worked along side her entire team to move the patients and staff into their new nursing and rehabilitation facility for their opening in April 2022. She was beyond excited and proud of the new center!

Two months later, Jetta was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Her doctor gave her a 50% chance of living past five years. Although devastated, she has barely been able to care for herself because she has been helping care for her father who was also diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer the same month.

Jetta’s heart serves other parts of the community as well. She mentors and takes care of young high school girls who are in traumatic situations. Some are pregnant without any help. She has also spent over two decades rescuing, fostering, and finding homes for stray animals in the city. She did this while finishing school, being a caretaker, and never asking for any financial help from anyone. She serves without posting or boasting about it. Her closest family members barely know about it.

Jetta’s current medications are $30K per month and are only partially covered by her insurance, which means LARGE bills are piling up quickly. We are looking at closer to $100K of out-of-pocket expenses. This $40K will help put a big dent in things!

With no hope from her doctors, she is undergoing unprecedented cancer treatment from Dr. Jeanne Stryker who is known as “the cancer killer”. This treatment is the only hope for her survival and is not covered by her insurance.

She nor her husband have asked for help but as a community, we are asking that everyone pulls together to help raise the funds to help them in this battle. If anyone is deserving, it is Jetta Featherston. She is an unsung hero.

Jetta has been married for 36 years to Rodney Featherston, captain at the Dallas fire department, who also risks his life daily helping the communities he serves. They have two children, Julia Butler who is a teacher in Mabank, and Jordan Featherston of Austin. Additionally, they have four grandchildren, whom Jetta loves dearly.