Debbie Oberle is a teacher at St. Joseph School. She has been there since 1985. She has been a junior high teacher, a 1st grade teacher and currently is the 2nd grade teacher. She was diagnosed with stage 4 (goblet cell) appendix cancer on May 4, 2020. It is a very rare cancer. At that time, she had surgery which included an appendectomy, a hysterectomy, and removal of part of her colon. In June, she started chemotherapy treatments. That consisted of 12 rounds of therapy, once every two weeks. Because of the rarity of her cancer, she also was referred to the University of Chicago Medicine Department, since there is a specialist there that deals with appendix cancer. Halfway through her chemotherapy rounds, in October of 2020, she had the HIPEC procedure (a fairly new procedure) at the University of Chicago Hospital. This treatment heated up the chemotherapy and placed it directly in her abdomen. It was intended to remove any areas that might have cancer or cover up the cancer. During this procedure, they also removed a fatty curtain at the time. She finished up her chemotherapy in the following months, officially ending on February 11, 2021. She has been involved with an experimental blood test study which detects cancer, and she was cancer free until June, 2021. Then a trace of cancer was indicated through the testing. Her CTscan showed a small lesion in the vaginal cuff. By September, 2021, the lesion had grown into a tumor, which was a little over an inch in diameter. Debbie will once again be undergoing 12 rounds of chemotherapy, with another surgery to remove the tumor. This will happen in the middle of her chemotherapy treatments (in 3 months). She continues to have CTscans in Chicago with her chemotherapy treatments in Peoria. We want to help with her medical expenses, her travel and lodging expenses and the numerous expenses that mount up during cancer treatments. Debbie exhausted her accumulated sick days last year. She will once again need to use more sick days than allotted. So, we also want to help offset her loss of income due to this situation. Debbie has given her whole life to teaching and doing for others. Please keep her in your prayers as she begins her chemotherapy treatments on September 28, 2021.