UPDATE!

Hello friends, friends of friends, hello anyone who hopefully reads this and helps. I truly appreciate you being here and taking the time to read this. My name is Hannah and I am here to advocate and raise money for my sister Mandy who is fighting Cancer. Many of you have supported my sister and our gratitude cannot be expressed enough. I wanted to give an update and ask for your continued support.

Mandy's journey has been an uphill battle since her Angio Sarcoma diagnosis last March. This cancer is MEAN and aggressive, smart and relentless. Her care through MD Anderson in TX has been impactful, yet must continue due to the nature of this beast of a disease.

Her surgery in August was successful, yet she needed to continue chemo through November. Mid November her scans showed NO sign of disease which was a blessing - especially heading into the holidays. Her doctors told her to report back in 3 months to rescan so they could keep a close eye on her. Unfortunately, before the 3 month check up, Mandy noticed some spots on her chest area where the sarcoma originated and MD Anderson bumped her appointment up and she headed to Texas again for about 5 days of appointments, scans, blood work etc.

Her worst fear, our worst fear was spoken - the cancer is back. Not even 3 months and this cancer resurfaced and attacked her body.

This news was heartbreaking. We have had to take some time to process this and accept the reality that this will be a battle for Mandy for the rest of her life. But as many of you personally know Mandy, she has inspired us all again and is ready to continue her fight. She is Stronger than Sarcoma!

Treatment Plan :

12 weeks of Chemotherapy, 1 treatment a week. At the 8 week mark she will once again travel to Texas to scan and make sure the treatment is working. They then hope to bring Immunotherapy to the treatment plan. Insurance declined the chemo, nausea medicine and immunotherapy plan and we had to hold off a week before she was able to start due to this. Thankfully, her doctors were able to get it through and today is her third round of chemo.

The battle with cancer is already enough to endure & Mandy does it with such grace, strength and faith. I could go on and on - but my message is to ask for your continued support. The treatments, the travel to Texas so frequently, the nutrients she needs to put into her body are all costly and she has not worked since last March. Ben puts in a lot to keep them afloat and as everyone knows this life is already financially hard without the extra costs they have so that Mandy can continue to live.

I thank you all for all you have already done for Mandy - but the fight continues - the support is still needed. God Bless You all & Thank You for believing in Mandy and aiding her in her fight.

June 2025

The days pass and the feelings remain the same… anger, fear, confusion, anxiousness, defeat, out of control, frustrated, sad. Why? Cancer. Sister. My beautiful, family-oriented, driven, kind sister has cancer. Again. The first time was hard. We were rocked by the news when all 4 lumps found in her breast came back as cancerous in 2020. When she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. When she lost all of her hair from chemo treatments. When her skin went pale, her face puffy and swollen, her body drained of the healthy glow she always had. The sting of radiation treatments and how poisonous it was for her. The mastectomy surgery that left her feeling like less than a woman. The reconstruction surgery that took over 12 hours. The horrible infection she got from that surgery… another week in the hospital fighting...

But then some good came – she rang the bell. Chemo, complete. YES. Her scans came back NO CANCER. Again, more scans NO CANCER… again and again. We thanked God every single day for those 4 years of remission and clear scans that the breast cancer had not returned.

Then a spot showed up on her reconstructed breast last August… the doctors thought nothing of it – a spider bite, a rash… use this lotion. Biopsy – not cancer… yet it continued to grow and spread until her whole breast was practically covered in this red and purple “rash”. Guess what… it is cancer. Angiosarcoma. Yeah, that radiation treatment that helped cure her breast cancer – gave her this cancer. Less than a 1% chance. The day she called me with the new biopsy results felt like a time warp and I was right back in her dining room holding her, hearing her cries of no, why, I knew it… cancer… again…

As defeating as it was for her to hear her doctors give her the news of this new diagnosis, Mandy picked herself up as she always has. Mandy is a fighter, she is a warrior and she would never give up - she set out to battle for her life again.

Her doctors at Johns Hopkins started her chemotherapy treatments in March after finding out about this cancer in late February. Unfortunately, they could not offer much else and this cancer calls for much, much MORE. It is a highly aggressive and invasive cancer of the blood vessels and removal of the infected, radiated skin MUST be removed in order to achieve remission. She had to advocate for herself and needed to find a team that could make this happen. She found MD Anderson, a facility in Houston, TX that specializes in Sarcoma and within 24 hours of self-referring she heard back from them and they scheduled her to meet with them.

She has been to Texas twice since then and they have come up with a plan of attack. On August 6th she will undergo a radical surgery. A double mastectomy and removal of her entire chest wall. This requires her to be in Texas from July 30 until at least August 22. As you can imagine, the cost of cancer treatments is already daunting. We are so thankful for her team of doctors in Texas but the travel is also very expensive and the stay for over a month only adds to it. She will also be closely monitored following surgery with trips to Texas every 3 months for at least 2 years.

Mandy is the strongest person I know. She has a husband and two children that she has worked so hard to provide for financially and emotionally. She has had to be off work since February and her husband also has to take time to be present and support her during her treatments. She does not want to ask for money - she has always worked hard for the life she has and committed herself to having a successful career so her family can live comfortably and enjoy the beauty life has to offer.

So I am asking for your help. I know so many of you donated months ago and we will forever be grateful. If you cannot donate again please share this and help advocate for Mandy and please continue the prayers for my sister.

As someone who loves her deeply, I want to help her in any way I can and I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for helping to relieve some financial burden so she can focus on her upcoming surgery.