Join Us to Support Tammy and Zoe's Journey

Dear Family & Friends – As most of you are aware, my sister, Tammy, was diagnosed with Stage III+ bladder cancer on August 30, 2021. Without treatment, she was told her life expectancy would be approximately 18 months. Her cancer journey started on December 2, 2021, with aggressive in-patient chemotherapy. After 10 rounds of this treatment, the tumors had reduced in size, and she was now a candidate for surgery. On July 5, 2022, she underwent a 15-hour radical cystectomy and diversion/reconstruction surgery. During surgery, it was discovered that the cancer had spread to surrounding lymph nodes, and one year after her initial diagnosis, she was told the cancer was incurable. She chose to continue to fight, driven by the need to see her daughter, Zoe, through college. Zoe has been attending Belmont University in Nashville, TN since graduating high school in May 2022. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Publishing in May 2026.

For the last two years, we have been so fortunate that there were treatment options available to buy us more time. When one treatment was no longer working, God blessed us with another option. 2024 has been a significant struggle for Tammy with life-threatening infections, a nephrostomy procedure, and a significant increase in nausea and pain. On August 29th, Tammy was told the cancer has now spread to her liver. The one last remaining treatment option would leave her with no quality of life and put her at an extremely high risk of infection. The life expectancy with that treatment option is about 9 months, and they told her she would be very ill from the treatment. She has elected to stop treatment in order to have a better quality of life her remaining months (with no treatment her life expectancy is about 6 months) rather than a few miserable months. She has filed her retirement paperwork and will officially retire from Klein ISD on September 30th. She has selflessly served 31 years in education.

I always knew that my sister was an incredibly strong, courageous, kind, thoughtful, and loving person, and walking through this journey with her, I have learned that is exactly who she is and even more so. Since she was diagnosed, she has always agreed to allow medical students to observe her treatments/medical procedures, she participated in a clinical trial, and she has strongly encouraged everyone in our family and her circles to get yearly check-ups and seek medical attention when something does not seem right.

She has fought a good fight and has made peace with what is to come. Her primary concern is Zoe. As the news of this last visit to her oncologist spread, so many have reached out asking if there was anything they could do to help.

Creating this GoFundMe account for Tammy was not an easy decision for her family as we are prepared to support Zoe and see that she graduates from her beloved Belmont. We are also prepared to take care of the mounting medical debt. So, after much prayer and soul searching, we decided to go ahead with the GoFundMe account. Please know that the sole purpose of any financial support received is to relieve the burden of medical bills and education costs for Zoe.

We are humbly asking that should you feel led and you wish to help, you can donate to this fund in support of Zoe. If you do not feel led or are not able to provide financial support at this time, we sincerely understand and would deeply and gratefully accept your prayers for Tammy, Zoe, and the family.