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Help needed.

In short, if this is all you read:

My children and I need your support more than ever as I have advanced to stage 4, metastatic breast cancer.  This is not a frivolous request, but one of grave urgency as I have been in this struggle for three years and cannot do it alone any longer.  Please donate anything you can and share this message as widely as you can!  Thank you, beautiful people.  God bless.


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With all that God has taken away, my breast, my sensations, some of my autonomy, he has given me still even more.  The support I have received and continue to receive on this site and from all truly is a miracle. 

As I am a single mother on disability, there is little to no chance I will be able to face these increasingly worsening conditions without support from the world. 

I ask for your heart to open and hear my very real plea, please donate ANYTHING you are able.  While a few dollars may not seem like it will make much of a difference, I can absolutely assure you that it will make an enormous difference to me and my children.  Your dollars will help purchase groceries.  You will directly help me make co-pays that are necessary to keep me alive. 

Your offering will be answering the prayer of someone who never wanted to be in the position of asking for donations, and yet God has placed me here.  To Him, I pray now that those who can hear his guidance, may they take the few minutes to offer a donation that feels right to them and to share this message as far and as wide as humanly possible. 

The more people this message reaches the better chance I have of surviving this experience and watching my boys grow into the fine men I know they will be.


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If you are interested in more details, here is my story:

My name is Gail and I have an unbelievable story that, unfortunately, far too many also experience.  In December, I went in for a routine mammogram.  In fact, being in my forties, it was my very first one.  And what they found has changed my life, and my children's lives, forever.  They exposed 3 legions that were all cancerous.  This was a lot to take in but I was willing to face the challenge.  I went to every chemo appointment for 10 months, I'm a fighter.  Then they told me I needed a mastectomy.  Okay, I said, "Let's do this." The surgery removed 52 lymph nodes on my left side.  Soon after, I was informed that I had developed lymphedema and underwent emergency surgery for an infection in the other breast in September.  As you can imagine, my heart and body had grown so tired at this point and yet still I continued to wake up and, as my personal strength to keep fighting was waning, I was able to rely more and more on the strength offered by God.  Truly, I did my best each day and I also know I could not have done it without the grace of a higher power while my body failed me, bills were piling up, and I was missing my son's football events and other important milestones because the cancer had bankrupted me.  I wish I could tell you the story ends there, but it does not.  

I gathered every ounce of strength to begin radiation last fall.  Neuropathy soon developed and created a landslide of other symptoms. I have no feeling in my feet and hands.  When my neurological problems started I had to use a walker, a wheelchair or a cane. I have started having chronic headaches and migraines.  My vision was lost and my left eye.  I now have a  1.5 cm tumor on the left side of my brain.  And I am grateful to God I am here today to share this list, as overwhelming as it may be.


As extreme as my journey has been, I understand I am not the only one in need and there are many deserving recipients for generosity.  I also know that I have already given everything I have to this fight and have no more, I live every single day on the faith that a ride to my appointment will come through, that my family will afford the groceries this week, that someone will help take my sweet dog for a walk because I am not able to right now.  This gofundme page is quite literally my last resort.  If there is any room in you to be moved to either offer a donation or share this post with your community or both, you must know I am praying in gratitude every day for you and others like you.


I have moved up to metastatic breast cancer (stage 4).  And as I told you earlier, I am a fighter.  I am just one face in this fight and it is my intention to be the best fighter possible.  I dream of the day my beautiful friends, suvivors and advocate s, are out in the sunshine, laughing and loving each other with our pink t-shirts and crossing the finish line of the Susan G. Komen Walk-a-thon, cause let's be real my girls and I do.not.run!  And that is ok.  Being alive, breathing in that fresh air and being with my loved one is enough.  Please.  Help me get there.


With all that God has taken away, my breast, my sensations, some of my autonomy, he has given me still even more.  The support I have received and continue to receive on this site and from all of my loved ones and the generosity of good samaritans, strangers from heaven, truly is a miracle.  As I am a single mother on disability, there is little to no chance I will be able to face these increasingly worsening conditions without support from the world. 

I ask for your heart to open and hear my very real plea, please donate ANYTHING you are able.  While a few dollars may not seem like it will make much of a difference, I can absolutely assure you that it will make an enormous difference to me and my children.  Your dollars will help purchase groceries.  You will directly help me make co-pays that are necessary to keep me alive.  Your offering will be answering the prayer of someone who never wanted to be in the position of asking for donations, and yet God has placed me here.  To Him, I pray now that those who can hear his guidance, may they take the few minutes to offer a donation that feels right to them and to share this message as far and as wide as humanly possible.  The more people this message reaches the better chance I have of surviving this experience and watching my boys grow into the fine men I know they will be.


Thank you for reading and sharing my story.  Please shine by providing whatever you can and please pray for healing. I will post updates. 

With heartfelt gratitude,
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Donations 

  • Leigh Yates
    • $450 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Gail Smith
Organizer
Germantown, MD

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