Paige and her family

Hi everyone.

I've been really struggling with the idea of opening up about this and asking for help but here I go...

Back in January I was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer. After several very stressful months, I had a hysterectomy in April to remove the tumors. We were really hoping that was the end of it. However, when they did a biopsy of the cancer and my lymph nodes, it was discovered that I had 2 types of cervical cancer and the cells had started to spread into my lymph nodes. I now need to have 5 weeks, Monday to Friday, of external radiation, 4 rounds of internal radiation and supplemental chemotherapy, all during this 5 weeks.

I have been off work since April recovering from my surgery and now I will be going through this treatment for July and August. It is very likely that I will not be returning to work on a full time basis come fall as I continue my recovery.

My husband, Dave, will be needing to take time off work to take me to treatments, provide care for me and look after our 7 year old son. I typically have summers off as I work only during the school year which means we now have the unexpected costs of childcare. My mom, who lives 2 hours away in Kenora, will also be driving back and forth throughout the summer to also help out.

I have a fantastic support network of family and friends but the costs are starting to add up. If you have other suggestions for providing support please do not hesitate to reach out to Dave or myself.

Anything you can contribute to help us would be greatly appreciated. Dave and I have not taken this decision lightly to ask for help as we are both very stubborn and independent people! These are all expenses that we were not anticipating this summer. Anything we receive will go towards helping us with meals, child care, reimbursing my mom for travel expenses, gas/parking to and from HSC, and trying to give our son a great summer as this is going to be very hard on him. Anything that is donated to us that we do not end up using, we will donate to Cancer Care.

Lastly, to all of my female friends, please, please do your routine PAP checks and if possible and consider getting the HPV vaccine if you are eligible. I had no idea I had cancer, this was all discovered during a routine PAP. Had I not been doing my routine PAP checks this probably could have been a lot worse.

Thank you everyone for your support and your time.

Love Paige, David and Levi.