Our friend Rachel has been battling leukemia for several years now. You might know Rachel from her time growing up in Coos Bay, or through SOU, or perhaps she played piano for your child's choir in her local high school. Rachel is struggling, and she needs our help. She is trying to get to Tampa, Florida for any and all palliative care or treatments that would ease some of her symptoms from Leukemia, and would help her to become stronger. Rachel feels that a warmer climate, being able to sit in hot sand, and swim in a salty ocean will aid in healing both her body and mind. The purpose of this fundraiser is to give Rachel the chance to spend a month in Florida to receive any treatments available, that might improve her quality of the life she has left to live. Thank you in advance, friends.

 

From Rachel: "I’ve spent every day for years, struggling beyond what doctors even recommended so I could live. I’ve pushed relentlessly and done treatments with no break and researched and pushed myself in every way beyond what should be humanly possible, and I’ve finally hit my limit. My spirit is tired. I hope to receive palliative care and treatments that would include spending time in a warmer climate and being close to  the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. I have lived with unrelenting pain, and now the only thing I’ve truly asked for or yearned for is just a few moments of peace and less pain in my body. My hope is that this trip is a chance for me to heal, and when I am strong enough, to look into the possibility of the transplant at this hospital in Florida, that I have been unable to get here in Oregon. 

 

I’ve never liked a bucket list. I feel like waking up each day and finding joy in the sky and my cats and flowers and the wind is my bucket list. This trip is scary. It’s unknown and could be exhausting. I’ll leave behind the few comforts I have, but it feels like a final chance to actually live. Maybe asking for help to seek this treatment is actually the most courageous thing I’ve ever done. Trust life. Asking for help is hard for me. It feels like allowing others to help me with what has been such a personal fight, is actually the bravest thing I could ever do. The thing I need in order to live is to allow for love, support, and comfort."