Help Renee Fight Breast Cancer for Her Family

Dear Friends, Family, and Kind Strangers,

My name is Renee Barrett, and I am a woman whose heart beats for my family—my loving husband, my three radiant daughters, my beautiful stepdaughter, my two beautiful granddaughters, and my two devoted sons-in-law. I’ve built a life filled with love, resilience, and dreams, not just for myself but for those who mean the world to me. Now, I’m fighting Stage 4 HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, and I need your help to access a life-saving treatment called Verthermia. This isn’t just about saving my life—it’s about preserving the heartbeat of a family that depends on my strength and love.

In the past, I have thrived on building opportunities for others while being the rock for my family. My daughters grew up watching me work tirelessly, and now my granddaughters–my little rays of sunshine–fill my days with laughter and hope. I want to be there for their first days of school, their dreams, their triumphs, just as I have been for my girls.

In 2023 everything changed. I found a lump in my right breast, but my doctor assured me it was just a lymph node and nothing to worry about. I was so relieved. But my best friend, who lost her daughter to triple-negative breast cancer in August of 2023, urged me to push harder. Her loss broke my heart, but her encouragement saved my life. After tests and biopsies, on Oct. 6th, 2023, my husband and I sat in a cold room as a nurse delivered the shattering news: Stage 4 incurable inoperable breast cancer. I saw the fear in my husband's eyes, and my thoughts raced to my daughters, my granddaughters–how could I leave them?

Refusing to surrender, I researched alternatives to chemo and radiation, having witnessed their toll on others. I started taking Verzenio and Letrozole, and after three months, scans brought tears of joy: the cancer was nearly gone, with just a tiny spot left in the lump in my breast, now a third of its size. For six months, hope carried us. But then, pain and burning returned in the lump in my breast. My voice began to get hoarse–not from sickness, but from a lymph node pressing on my vocal cord nerve, making it hard to swallow. I pleaded with my doctor, but a CT scan only showed “stable” progression. Within weeks, the lump felt like it had doubled. A PET scan confirmed my worst fears, the cancer was back, everywhere it had been, now in my upper thoracic lymph nodes, larynx, clavicle, and neck. I felt betrayed by time, wishing we had acted sooner. Now on Orserdu, I’m fighting with everything I have.

Through it all, my family keeps me going. My husband holds my hand through every tear. My daughters, each so unique and strong, remind me of the legacy I’ve built. My stepdaughter and sons-in-law rally around me–their love a constant reminder of the life we have woven together. This fight isn’t just for me– its for them, for the moments we still have to share.

I’ve found hope in Verthermia, a treatment that uses heat to kill cancer cells, offering a chance where others see none. But it comes at a steep price: $150,000 uncovered by insurance, plus $5000 for travel, lodging, and food. The cost feels like a mountain, but my family’s love and my determination are bigger. I’m asking for your help to climb this mountain, to give me the chance to keep being the wife, mother, and grandmother my family needs.

Your donation, no matter how small, is a gift of time—time for me to hold my granddaughters, to encourage my daughters, to grow old with my husband. If you can’t donate, sharing my story could reach someone who can. Together, we can show cancer that love and community are unstoppable. Help me fight for my family, for the laughter and love that define my life.

With all my heart,

Renee Barrett