At the end of February, Cindy Matthews and Jack Nicholsen received news every parent hopes they will never hear. During an Emergency visit to the hospital in late February, a massive tumour was discovered on their daughter’s liver. In early April, at age 23, their daughter Penny was diagnosed with liver sarcoma, a very rare, aggressive and incurable cancer. Her oncologist and palliative care team are doing whatever they can to mitigate the myriad symptoms ravaging her body, while attempting to get her strong enough to, one day soon, leave the hospital. Along with the expertise and dedication of Penny’s medical teams, Jack and Cindy are deeply grateful for the friends and family who have rallied to help Penny get through the difficult and terrifying journey ahead, but it is now clear that more help is needed.

Our goal for this fundraiser is to make the remainder of Penny's life as comfortable and meaningful as possible, and to relieve some of the financial burden on the family that will come with that. While Penny has been in the hospital, she’s had to give up her shared accommodation where she was living out of town, and have all of her belongings put into storage. Penny will need a safe, clean space in town to convalesce once she is discharged. A space close to the hospital and that’s big enough to accommodate her loving service dog and share with her primary caregiver. The family is in the process of finding her such

a place. Along with new accommodations; transportation, mobility equipment, Physiotherapy, medical expenses and acquiring dog walkers are also financial obstacles to overcome.

If you are able and would like to help support Penny and her family though this most difficult time, Jack and Cindy will be performing a fundraiser for their daughter with their band, The Cameron Family Singers, who are all generously volunteering their talents for the event. This fundraiser will be held at The Cameron House at 408 Queen Street West in Toronto on Saturday May 9 at 6:00pm. In their typical fashion the band will take a collection by Passing the Jug. All monies received will be deposited into this GoFundMe account that has been set up for Penny. If you can’t make it to the fundraiser, but would like to offer a donation, you can contribute while you’re here on this page.

After spending the first four years of her life shuffled around in the foster care system, Penny was adopted by Cindy and Jack in 2006. At that time they shared their life between their home in Northumberland County and their apartment above the Cameron House bar where Cindy was Manager and part owner. Penny loved living above the excitement of the bar, meeting the regulars, getting to know the tenants upstairs, visiting Bon’s Submarine, sharing pizza with her brother at 2-4-1, and watching her new parents sing to a full house on Saturdays.

A brilliant smiler to all who meet her, creative and smart with a deep love of animals and great care for children, Penny had also struggled with mental health her entire life. 2 years ago, after meeting her partner Uday, Penny made an extraordinary move to gain a connection with herself, find new meaning and meet challenges head on. Even now, while her body betrays a lethal challenge to her very immediate existence, she has been meeting it, as much as one can, with the same resolve that she’s been building inside her for many months. Those who

are close to her are inspired by her spirit, humour, pluck and love, and will do whatever it takes to bring joy to this very special young woman.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far! If you’re able, please help this family through their heartbreaking journey with a donation of any size. Every little bit will impact, and allow for, the time they will spend together.