My name is Kory Burge and I'm raising funds for my mom, Angela Montgomery. She is a pediatric cancer survivor, prior pediatric oncology nurse and amazing mom and Mimi. When she was being treated for Stage III B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1991 at the age of 16, they told my grandparents that the long-term concern is developing another cancer due to the harsh chemotherapy and radiation protocol, as well as heart and lung disease. As a parent, what choice do you have? Thirty-five years later, on November 18, 2025 after complaining for over three years to her doctors that something was desperately wrong and being denied an MRI, she convinced the ER doctor to do a CT on her head. They found two large brain tumors, one of which is pressing on and displacing her brain stem. She also has some on her spine, but they’re not sure how many yet. MRI of her entire spine is coming March 6th. This has kept her from working and she has used her retirement down to the penny, and now cannot work, nor support herself through this. Please donate if you can and share this with everyone you know.
My mom was a pediatric cancer nurse at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She has comforted families for decades after they lost their battle and continues to do so to this day. She has also participated in the St. Jude Long Term Follow-Up Study for over 30 years. She does this to give back for the chemotherapy that saved her life but came too late for her grandmother that died at 33 of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1968. She wanted to make Maxine (her mom’s mother) proud. I can safely say she has accomplished her goal.
She’s a proud lady and she cried when I told her there was no shame in asking for help, especially since she’s spent her life helping others.
The donations will be used for transportation to the multiple appointments and surgeries she needs, rent, utilities and any co-pays she’s responsible for. I take her to all appointments because she’s struggling to drive. Her left leg has given out multiple times and she has always stubbornly insisted on driving a stick shift. She’s unable to hold the clutch in now :( Her most recent fall resulted in a huge bruise/hematoma on her right arm.
The plan is to have the first surgery on March 10th to remove the brain tumor currently displacing her brainstem before it starts causing seizures. It will be 10-12 hours long, then 3 days in ICU and 3 days on the unit. The next will be to remove the one in her frontal lobe.
I will be providing updates quite regularly in between working and caring for her. I just need a little help from the community. Please donate if you can, share and pray for her.
It started out with her memory slipping. She would forget simple conversations we’d had hours before. She kept bumping into things and the headaches are so horrid. It’s hard to watch the fiercest woman you’ve ever known reduced to tears because she can’t find words during a conversation. She said it feels like she’s going crazy.
She has made my uncle her Medical Power of Attorney so neither her mom, nor her children have to make the gut-wrenching decision should it come to that. That is the kind of person she is. My 11 year old niece has privately asked me if her Mimi is going to die because she doesn’t want to upset my brother by asking him. She is my mom’s only grandbaby and the absolute light of her life. I told her Mimi is the strongest person I know and she’s smart. She’ll find a way out of this. I can still hear her saying, I just want to get you guys settled. It breaks my heart to even type it. I cannot think of a time when my mom has needed help more.
Through all of this, mom remains a fighter, and is full of determination. Let’s rally around her and show her that she is not alone in this fight. Any donation—no matter the size—will make a meaningful difference in easing the financial burden on her.