Lighten Lauren's Load #Thrive

Hi, My name is Teryn and I am fundraising in support of my dear friend, Lauren. Lauren is facing a mountain of hurdles that vary from cancer, separation, and her children’s health issues.

Lauren is a mother of five children; four rambunctious, curious, smart, and kind boys ages 15, 12, 5, and 2 and a daughter that is now passed. Lauren works full time at a local non-profit serving victims of domestic violence and is a full time student finishing her bachelor’s degree. Lauren is committed to making our local community a better place. She goes above and beyond to support our community with her work, often working overtime or volunteering for fundraising or prevention projects. Regrettably, working for a non-profit, Lauren’s income is limited, and money is tight while raising four children.

To make matters more complicated Lauren was diagnosed with colon cancer in November 2022. This is Lauren’s second bout with cancer having survived cervical cancer and being put at end of life care at only 18 years old. She had to undergo invasive surgery in late November. At present, she has had to undergo weekly chemotherapy which has caused her to miss at least one day if not two days of work per week. Lauren is an hourly employee so she has expended all of her leave and frequently has to take unpaid time off to accommodate her treatment, or complications from her treatment. During the course of chemotherapy, Lauren’s health deteriorated from an unrelated back injury that left her waking up one morning partially paralyzed in early February. This also required her being life lighted to another city, and emergency surgery.

Despite this all Lauren has done her best to keep her kids healthy, happy, and safe. She spends an hour before and after work dropping them off at their respective schools and days cares or picking them up. Every night she tries to make them a home cooked meal and spends time doing crafts or helping with homework. She homeschools her 15-year-old child who has a specialized Individual Education plan and does best with individualized education. She ensures her 5 year old son who is diagnosed with a rare disorder gets to all of his doctor appointments and gets all of his medicine. Just last week, she had to take her 5-year-old to Seattle to see an oncologist and multiple specialists. Ultimately his diagnosis’ will result in frequent screening for cancer, lifelong medication, monitoring for organ failure, and more. In the next few months her child will need to return to Seattle for more testing.

I am writing to request help for Lauren. She is doing everything in her power to stay ahead of life’s many challenges. I want to see her and her children thrive, and know our community of friend’s and family can help. The money raised will go towards supplementing her income when she misses work for her or her son’s treatments, assist in bills, and help her family save for a future home.