Hello - My name is Cambria and I have recently learned about my longtime friend Nicole Dresser and her 1.5 year journey with Metastatic Breast Cancer. She has been told that it is an incurable cancer and will be a lifelong journey of managing it to give her the best quality of life possible, for however long that will be. I had the pleasure of visiting her recently and heard about her situation. Unfortunately, she is struggling financially at this time due to not feeling well due to Cancer treatments and being unable to work on a regular basis. She is trying to survive on very little income through income assistance and CPP. She is struggling to pay rent, buy groceries and her car (which she needs to drive back and forth to Prince George from Quesnel, for her treatments.) I'm hoping we can all pitch in a little bit to help her out and hopefully not have to stress about how she will pay the next bill.

Words from Nicole:

My name is Nicole and I was diagnosed with Stage 4 grade 3 Metastatic Breast Cancer back in May 2023.

This was the beginning of a journey for myself, family, friends and my Den Family (my lovelies I work with)

It started out to be quite a crazy 2 months of a series of scans, blood work and appointments. After all this, we soon found out it had spread to my L3 vertebrae., both hips. I waited to see how the doctors were going to attack this in the best way for my case. At this time, I went through an emotional rollercoaster but then found myself too busy to even worry about the emotions.

I started out on my first set of treatments which was chemotherapy in pill form for approximately 2 months combined with a series of injections with a tiny pill that piggy backed these injections. This put my whole body into full on menopause. This whole treatment is called hormonal blocking because it is a hormonal cancer that spreads and can be aggressive. At this time it felt as though my body was combatting 2 different wars at once, needless to say I felt a hot mess LOL.

I have gone through 2 different sets of radiation, one for pain management in my bones, and the other for my breast. Now let me tell you that that was the worst chapter of this journey.

I then found out the first chemotherapy treatment was not working. Everything was still growing and the treatment only slowed the growth down.

I am now on a new treatment – chemotherapy IV and still on my injection.

This definitely has taken a toll on my life in every way. It has changed me forever as to how I view the world and how I will continue to live my life forward. I take the small wins always – like having to not shave my legs and still loving the fact that I still have my eyelashes, loss of a few pounds that keeps me fluffy LOL and a couple other things. I have found finding the humour in this crazy journey helps a lot.

This type of cancer is something I will deal with for the rest of my life due to it being hormonal. I will not get the joy of remission but the possibility of flare ups can happen whenever.

All is not grim though because I feel amazing most days and at times have had to remind myself I am a cancer patient. The toughest part has been seeing my kids and their partners manage through this along with many riotous friends and my beautiful Den family.

I love you all so much! Thanks for being a part of Team Nicole !!

July 3 Update - 4 months ago I got diagnosed with another type of breast cancer called HER2+ , so I now battle 2 types of breast cancer with another plan of attack to battle the newest findings. With 3 different IV med treatment plans making this 4 treatment plans to date. I am fighting the fight and have the strength with the love and support of my amazing friends (aka my family) and my family. Any help (however it comes) is gratefully appreciated and accepted with love. There will never be the right words to express this because thank you will never seem enough. Thanks for being a part of team Nicole.

Much love always,

Nicole

XOXO