Join Summer's fight against stage IV melanoma

With hopeful hearts, we are choosing to share our story with you so that we can provide care for Summer - our friend, daughter, granddaughter, niece and sister - as she battles stage IV melanoma.

By the age of 29, Summer has endured great hardships, yet she consistently chooses to show up thankful, talks about how blessed she is, and is finding ways to make the absolute most out of this life, every single day.

Summers battle with melanoma began with just one "bad" mole. She realized it became more prominent in appearance, but it wasn't until she saw blood rushing down her leg, that things became serious. In July of 2021, her mole was biopsied and she got the devastating call; malignant melanoma. She was scheduled immediately with a local surgeon to perform a wide local excision and take a biopsy of the groin area to ensure that cancer had not spread further into the body, lymph system or major organs. All was good, she was cancer free, or at least she thought.

Fast forward a year, to August 2022, at her yearly follow up, a small, hard, pea sized lymph node was felt. A biopsy was performed, and the results were yet again, malignant melanoma. Summer’s cancer was now stage III melanoma, and her test results came back positive for the BRAF gene. Unfortunately, through the biopsy performed, small amounts of active cancer cells were pulled to the surface of her skin and the tumor grew extremely quickly over the course of a month. Her oncologist selected targeted therapy oral chemo pills to quickly and specifically target this growth. The new treatments brought along a wide range of negative side effects, including fevers, chills, hunger, constant nausea, vomiting, rashes and intense fatigue day in and day out. Summer spent approximately 5 months total on targeted chemotherapy pills and by the end, being the fighter that she is, was back to caring for herself.

Surgery was scheduled for May 2023 and was successful in removing all 9 lymph nodes. Only one contained melanoma. This was a huge success. A golf ball sized tumor was also removed, and the pathology margins came back clear. This meant that the possibility of immunotherapy could be discussed. Summer, and her friends and family, were ready to put cancer behind them.

Immunotherapy started in July of 2023 and after her first treatment she started to have gastric issues and sensations that she thought was colitis. Yet again, a CT scan soon revealed that the source of her pain was the cancer metastasizing in the body and her new battle with stage IV melanoma was just beginning.

Tomorrow, August 31st 2023, Summer will begin her new treatment plan. She will add a second immunotherapy drug, called Yervoy. With the addition of the second drug, Summer will feel the side effects of ten times the initial, single, immunotherapy drug and she will most certainly feel the negative effects of these drugs on her ability to care for herself and make a living.

We, as her support system, feel the need to fight alongside her and are asking for your help in doing so. She will be unable to work while receiving these strong treatments and needs help funding her medical care and transportation to and from treatments.

If you know Summer, you know she does not ask for help with a light heart. We would like to help her explore all options medically and unfortunately there are extreme costs associated with this. There are additional, possibly life saving treatments that Summer can explore, but without the financial help of this GoFundMe, her treatment options are minimal. Summer deserves more than that. She brings laughter to anyone she interacts with, compassion to those around her and inspiration to both those battling cancer and young women who may be struggling in other ways. A true beacon of light. If you have the means to help in some way, we will forever be grateful. She is strong and we are confident that she will beat this.

No friend, daughter, granddaughter, niece, or sister should have these worries at 29 years of age. I am hopeful we can help remove the financial strain and let her focus on healing.

In her words, “love each other, be kind, forgive one another and don’t take today for granted.”