Sarah Valentine's Cancer Battle

Sarah trained for 8 months to run her first marathon in Washington DC and had to drop out two weeks before the race due to a surprise diagnosis of Stage 2A Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer.  While her prognosis is great and the doctors are all extremely optimistic of a full recovery, that doesn't negate the fact that insurance only covers so much and the burden of paying for this treatment has fallen solely on Sarah. So let's work together to help her out!

It started with a simple question to her primary doctor at the end of September about a lump in her clavicle which she thought was a strained muscle due to lifting weights and training for the marathon. Within two weeks she had an Ultrasound, a CT scan, and a meeting with the top oncologist in her area who requested the lump be biopsied "yesterday" due to other masses present on the CT behind the chest wall near her heart.  She had the biopsy done immediately, the surgeon removed a ping pong sized lymph node from her clavicle and confirmed a Hodgkin's cancer diagnosis. 

Sarah then had a PET scan to confirm the staging, and the oncologist ordered a lung function test, an echocardiogram and the insertion of a port for chemo. Two weeks after the oncologist wanted the mystery lump biopsied she started the first of four aggressive (every other week) chemo treatments. 

She plans to keep working as much as possible, much of it from home and days off when needed (with an amazing company and super supportive coworkers!!) throughout her chemo treatments, however the medical bills from two surgeries, multiple tests, blood work, prescriptions etc. are adding up and are well exceeding her resources. 

As mentioned above, her prognosis is great and the doctors are all extremely optimistic of a full recovery, however, she may need more than the original planned chemo depending on how well she responds to the treatments and more medical testing in the future.  So let's work together to help her out!