Julie's Journey: Overcoming Colon Cancer

My name is Julie Frady, and I was just recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Processing that news has been both devastating and overwhelming, yet also liberating after suffering for months from the debilitating Crohn’s disease flareups from the tumor causing a partial bowel obstruction and further inflammation to my gastrointestinal tract.

Since last fall, I have been in and out of the hospital more times than I can count. In December, I had my second colonoscopy of the year, and it was determined that I had adhesions (scar tissue) from my last bowel obstruction surgery in February 2023. It was determined that my symptoms should resolve with medication, biologic infusions, etc., but my symptoms persisted and progressively got worse. After feeling like I wasn’t getting any better, I changed GI doctors and he immediately ordered another colonoscopy where the previously diagnosed adhesions turned out to be colon cancer. The tumor is stage 3, and rapidly growing. Thankfully, scans show the cancer hasn’t spread to my lungs, liver, or kidneys—a huge relief. Without going into a lot of the nitty gritty medical details, with surgery, chemotherapy, and possibly radiation, my prognosis is promising if I respond well to treatment and it doesn’t spread.

I’ve created this GoFundMe to help ease the staggering financial burden of uncovered out-of-pocket medical costs (deductibles, copays, medication, infusions, etc) along with loss of income during recovery for my initial stage of treatment. Reviewing the economic aspects of fighting this is beyond overwhelming and seems exceedly intangible.

I am a single mother, and my son will be off to college in the fall. I have worked his whole life so that he would be able to have that opportunity without having to take on a significant financial burden.

I find myself with intense thoughts, weighing the financial burden of fighting this if I may die soon when I am already financially vulnerable without having a significant other or partner to offset lost income, and not wanting to leave my son with any financial burden. Can I afford to fight this? It is hard to comprehend the weight of this diagnosis, without feeling the enormous financial burden this will have.

This is probably one of the hardest and most vulnerable things I've ever had to do, but I need help. I find myself embarrassed to ask, wondering if I’m worthy of help. When the hospital reviewed the financial breakdown with me, they suggested a crowdfunding campaign to offset some of the cost. Truthfully, I am scared to ask, but ultimately, I don’t know how I’ll manage without help. In my case, depending on several factors I could be responsible for roughly $1700/week out of pocket for 6 months in order to fight this initial phase. That financial weight just feels crushing.

Several friends offered to set this up for me, but I wanted to tell my story. I am the one humbly asking for your help. I want to share my journey, and hopefully, my story becomes one of inspiration with a happy ending.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and consider donating to my journey.

Love,

Julie