It takes a village.

My niece, Nicole Del Fiorentino, was recently diagnosed with fast-growing triple-negative breast cancer. And yes, this was discovered in the third trimester of her recently announced pregnancy. Fortunately, the doctors have worked out a chemotherapy regimen that is safe for the baby.

It's been a tough couple years for Nicole and her family and we are turning to friends and family for financial assistance so that they can focus on her fight against cancer and the health of Nicole and baby.

Nicole and Brandon married and welcomed their first child together in 2022; combined they have four children, Riley (18), Tyler (13), Sherri (10), Elijah (2) and are expecting baby #5 by October 1. Less than two months after welcoming Elijah to the family in 2022, Brandon was in a severe motorcycle accident, breaking multiple vertebrae, his neck, his hip and other injuries, and spent months bedridden in the ICU and at home. As a retired Marine Corps Scout Sniper with a Purple Heart, Brandon is no stranger to injury, but this one took quite a while to recover from. The family was just starting to recover from the accident this year when Nicole and Brandon were able to purchase their first home together and announce the upcoming arrival of baby #5 (boy #4 for those who are counting!) due October 1. Things were looking up, until they weren't.

Nicole was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer last month (at 7 months pregnant) and has started an expedited round of four chemo sessions--over eight weeks instead of the normal 12--and then will pause to deliver their precious (and last) bundle of joy. After what will be an all-too-short recovery period, she will resume chemotherapy for 12 weeks, followed by surgery. The extent of surgery is unknowable right now as it will depend on how the cancer responds to treatment, what genetic markers are found, etc. We will keep you, her village, updated! Please be patient and understand that, if the information isn’t here, it is because it is either not known or Nicole isn’t comfortable sharing it. From experience, I can say that it becomes overwhelming to answer questions and field well-meaning suggestions. That said, well wishes are ALWAYS welcome.

Meanwhile, Nicole is trying to continue to work between treatments until the baby is born. As you can imagine, there are already many health-related expenses (copays, services not completely covered by insurance, remedies for side-effects), not to mention all the normal expenses for the baby and the rest of the family that they would otherwise be able to cover if this terrible turn of events hadn't happened. Plus, without the ability to breastfeed, the cost of specialty infant formula is one that they were not anticipating (thank you, family history of multiple food allergies). This beautiful young family needs our help. We decided to launch this GoFundMe so that Nicole's village can help her concentrate on her medical recovery, their new baby and family, rather than worrying about the expenses and loss of income that they will be facing.