Julie’s Battle for LIFE-TIME

Julie’s Battle for LIFE-TIME


Have you ever curled up on your sofa, beverage of choice in hand, and lost yourself in thought - daydreaming about how wonderful it would be if you could DROP. EVERYTHING. and travel the United States searching for a TREATMENT that would give you a 22% chance of watching your 5th grade daughter begin 10th grade? And your 8th grade son graduate from High School? Because if you don’t...that chance is a big fat 0%? (That 22% looks pretty good now, doesn’t it?!) 


NO?!

Sweet mercy. Neither have I. The stress. The airports. The TSA agents touching all of my unmentionables! Not to mention the never ending sense of urgency that would plague my sensitive gut biome. 


When your body says, “SURPRISE!!! I’m going to take you on an unwanted adventure! Surely, it’s always been your deepest desire to spend your gold and silver on Meeeeeeeee....” clearly the only way to answer that siren call is to say, “I call the shots around here, our adventure starts at a sweet A$$ cancer center, and don’t call me Shirley!” 


We, en masse, have the ability to change the future. 


We, en masse, can change: 


“HOW WILL I PAY FOR THIS TRIP FOR A LIFETIME — WITHOUT LEAVING MY FAMILY IN FINANCIAL RUIN!?”


To:

0% chance??  I laugh in your general direction. “I’ll have the 22% chance, for Go Fund Me Dollars, Alex.”



Do you see the difference there? Swagger. Confidence. The Julie we know and love. Let her be her, for as long as possible. Help her be her, for as long as possible. 


Simply put: there exists no treatment that is a actual cure for what ails Julie’s body. 



* We can WISH for her to have the same high % chance “the rest of us” have. 

* We can PRAY for the 22% chance that THIS TRIP could give her. 

* And we can DONATE. To HELP JULIE Embark on this “Trip For a Lifetime”. 



Each airplane, airport, hotel, insurance bill,

Medical bill, meals while traveling, and hotel brings Julie one step closer to 22%. 



Help put Julie on that first plane. Help put Julie and her family in reach of 22%. And watch your money do more good, fill more hearts, and touch the future of two precious kiddos, a burly husband I’m afraid to make eye contact with, and a world of friends who can’t bear to let her go without a fight. 


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A Background on Julie’s Journey: 


[For those of you that know Julie and have been following her battles with cancer, we encourage you to continue checking her Caring Bridge journal for regular updates.  You already understand the dire situation she is in and we truly appreciate whatever financial support you can lend that will enable her to spend as many more days as we can “buy” her with her husband and children]  


If this is the first time you are hearing about Julie, we’d love to tell you a bit about this amazing woman, wife, mother, daughter, and friend.  


Julie is one of those rare people that the instant you meet her, you know you’ve stumbled on someone truly special.  She never stops moving, fiercely cares for her family, loves adventure, and has a true passion for BOTH of her jobs - supporting physicians in the care of their patients and breeding the Australian Labradoodles she so deeply loves.  


Julie’s battle with breast cancer began 5 years ago when she found a lump in her breast through a routine breast self-exam.  This cancer was invasive and extremely difficult to treat and while it was touch and go for quite awhile, she fought hard and with the right Oncology team surrounding her, they eventually won the battle. 


Fast forward five years and Julie isn’t facing a battle with cancer anymore, this time she’s involved in an all out war.  She lived with the fear of reoccurrence every single day during the past 5 years and even though she did everything right and went to all of her follow up appointments and scans, no one knew that this cancer was still laying dormant inside her body.  


In mid-June, at a routine scan, Julie’s body lit up with cancer.  With further testing, they were able to determine that this was the exact cancer she had previously had in her breast, but this time it was in her bones, lymph nodes, and liver.  Julie was diagnosed with incurable, inoperable Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.  


There’s no other way to say it except that this is a devastating diagnosis.  There is no “survival rate” for this cancer.  The very best Julie can hope for is treatments that will help her live as long as possible.  Her dream is to make it see both of her children graduate high school in 4 years and in 7 years.  We ask for your assistance in helping her achieve this dream.  


Even though she began treatment immediately, it has not been working and when she was rushed to the ER the day after her 45th birthday, they determined the cancer is spreading like wildfire.  It’s time to throw everything in the book at this cancer but the only way she can do this is through expensive genetic testing and traveling all over the country to different cancer treatment centers until she can find the team that specializes in her specific type of cancer.  It’s life or death, and an absolute necessity.  But it’s horrendously expensive and not covered by insurance.  Julie’s genetic testing alone costs more than $9,000 dollars, she will have to pay out of pocket for her flights and accommodations to each of these cancer centers, and we haven’t even begun to fathom the cost of the actual treatments/medications yet.  


Julie needs a team of warriors at her back as she marches through this hellacious war.  Any amount you can donate helps and is appreciated more than she or her family can even express.  Let’s “buy” her as many days, months, and hopefully years with her family that we can.  Thank you for joining Julie’s fight.  




Beautifully written by Kate Shumway & Krista Hartman

Diligently Managed by Juanita Fabre