Help Katrina Kick Cancer

Katrina Lange is the most selfless, compassionate, and giving person you could ever meet. She is a dedicated wife and mother, a thoughtful friend, and full of wit and wisdom for everyone she meets. And now she needs our help.

Last January, Katrina was diagnosed with Stage 3B triple negative breast cancer. While many breast cancers can be traced back to a hormonal cause, triple negative cannot. It is therefore more aggressive, terrifying, and difficult to treat.

It started with a lump. Because she has polycystic ovaries, her care team was certain that the cyst in her breast would also be benign. After a scan and biopsy, her family, friends, and providers were shocked to learn that Katrina has breast cancer.

Triple negative breast cancer met its match with Katrina. She immediately agreed to treatment, supported by her family and closest friends. She started with 11 rounds of Taxol/Carboplatin. When that yielded no improvement, she tried two rounds of Adriamycin and Cytoxin with Keytruda. The tumor grew.

Undeterred, Katrina continued to fight. Beginning in July 2022, she underwent a double mastectomy, finished the remaining two cycles of Adriamycin and Cytoxin, and completed 25 rounds of radiation. Currently, she is in her sixth round of Xeloda chemotherapy with two rounds still to go.

If she's struggling, it's hard to tell. Katrina joked and laughed with me today from her room on the eighth floor of the hospital which happens to overlook a scenic parking garage. She gushed about her children, made sarcastic remarks about the hospital food, and humored the nurse during one of her many check-ins.

Right now, Katrina is recovering from a DIEP flap reconstruction, a 14-hour surgery during which fat and vessels from her lower abdomen were placed into her chest. Because of this surgery, Katrina will not be able to work for the next six to eight weeks. Her husband, Matt, who sent updates to her friends and family throughout the surgery, must return to work as he has utilized all of his available time off. Her five children are all in school with sports and activities in the evenings.

Your thoughts, prayers, and meals have all been appreciated, and now Katrina needs our help financially. She is too selfless to ask for your donations, so I'm writing this letter hoping that she won't unfriend me for pleading her case.

Your gift will help Katrina and her family to take the time that they need to heal without worrying about their bills. It will let her be a normal mom in the stands of her 11-year-old daughter's basketball game. It will give her space to rest and not push herself to return to work too quickly. It will help the kids to continue to live as normally as possible, as Katrina has vowed to do throughout her treatment. She has been brave and joyful and your kindness will give her strength in this final stretch of healing.

Would you please donate to show this beautiful woman a fraction of all the love and light she gives to everyone else?

Sending gratitude and kindness,

Katrina's friend,

Gabrielle Bovard