Miracles for Mandy - Help Support Her Lifesaving Surgery

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 in her second battle with cancer. I know cancer has touched many people's lives - this is how it has impacted my sister Mandy and our family.

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.