MAKE IT HISTORY NOT HER STORY

27 years old....do you remember your summer? I was a young mom, loving life, spending my summer days with friends and family. Not Valerie. Valerie has been diagnosed with a carcinoid tumor on her right lung. Instead of enjoying her days as an early childhood educator with the children she has loved and taken care of most of their lives, she will spend it in and out of hospitals around Quebec, having one (if not 2) lobes of her lung removed, getting treatment and taking care of her health.

My name is Gwenda and I am lucky enough to not just have my own family, but to have one that I have been accepted into as well. Valerie is one of these family members. I first met her when she was about 10 years old, at which time she spent most of my visit playing with and taking care of the younger kids. It was easy to see she was going to be doing something with children when she got older, she loved being around them, even after having 5 younger siblings. She went to school, got her certificate and went to work and never looked back. Just seeing pictures of her with those kids...her face never looked brighter or happier.

Cut to July 9, when she went to hospital to figure out why her pneumonia was not clearing up but getting worse. The hospital did a CT scan and found what looked like a blockage in her right lung so she was sent to a specialist. Since then Valerie has endured 2 endoscopies and other tests. The diagnosis is Carcinoid tumor on the lung, a cancer that is about 1/2 of 1% of the cancers, mostly found in those over the age of 60 and can lay unnoticed for up to 10 years.

The recovery time for the surgery for her lung is going to be about 6-8 weeks, unsure of other treatments at this time. Unfortunately, working for a small childcare business, Valerie has no insurance to help with costs of drugs and with not being able to work at the moment (children carry a lot of sickness, she must stay as healthy as possible until her surgery), the cost of travel to and from appointments, staying in hotels for appointments in Montreal, food, gas. She is going to need help in every way possible.

I would like to ask that you please share this GoFundMe page as well as for any and all donations. I will keep updating as I receive more information.

I am including this link for those who would like some more information on this disease.

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Lung+Carcinoid+Tumor%2c+canADA&mid=CFE900E12F586678F6A3CFE900E12F586678F6A3&FORM=VIRE