Show Lena Zepf Love - Her Breast Cancer Battle

My little sister, Lena, is 35 years young (she’ll always be young to me as I am older!) and has accomplished much in her life that has made her and those around her happy. She is a talented professional, loving mother of two boys under 5, and my best friend in the world. She is also the strongest person I know and has made the selfless decision this past year to battle breast cancer while being pregnant (can you imagine?!). This GoFundMe has been created to help support her during this impossible time.

Her treatment over the last year (fully detailed below) has included chemo while pregnant, a double mastectomy and radiation post-birth and is currently undergoing another year+ of immunotherapy and hormone therapy. Through all this, I have seen her struggle with coping with the hardest thing that a person has to deal with so early in life – their own mortality and how to remain both positive and present for her two young boys in an impossible situation.

The cost of prescriptions, physiotherapy and other unanticipated costs associated with her treatment are a significant burden on her family, which due to her health has been reduced to a single income. Lena, a passionate Archaeologist, has not been able to work since April 2021 and given the toll her treatment has taken (including permanent heart damage from the chemo drugs), will likely not be able to return to the workforce in the future.

What Lena is going through is both physically and mentally crippling; the money raised through this GoFundMe will help give Lena what she needs right now – TIME; time to focus on continuing treatments, her own healing and time to spend with her young family. Lena is the best mom - the future is uncertain, but one thing she can do is be in the present with her boys and family as much as possible. In this respect, your gifts will be life-changing. Lena is brave, selfless…and proud. She will not ask for herself, but I can ask for her – let’s see what we can do for her together, so she can focus on what’s important in the right now.

THE FULL STORY

When Lena told me last year that she was pregnant with baby #2, we cried happy tears (getting pregnant for many, including her, was not easy and to get to this point is something to celebrate!).

When she told me three months into her pregnancy that she had breast cancer, we cried many more tears. The diagnosis took longer than average to come by - the doctors didn’t push for it because the risk at 35 and pregnant is so low, and the wait time for tests during the pandemic were long - this let the cancer spread further before treatment could begin, which in itself was devastating to hear.

Lena is both incredibly brave and selfless (sometimes I think even superhuman) - she decided to go through with the pregnancy even though it prevented her from having several necessary diagnostic tests which would harm the baby. The risk of this decision both postponed her full diagnosis and surgery until after the baby was born.

At 18 weeks pregnant, she underwent aggressive chemotherapy during the next 4.5 months (chemo drugs cannot cross into the placenta…the human body can fail us, but it is also incredible). Can you imagine? On September 20th, 2021, Lena welcomed her healthy baby boy. His birth was followed by a whirlwind of tests that revealed the full extent of her cancer – Stage 3B Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in her left breast, which had spread to her lymph nodes in her left armpit. She also received some other, literally heart-breaking news: while the chemo treatments successfully shrunk the tumors to manageable surgical sizes, they caused permanent heart damage, which has reduced her heart’s capacity to circulate blood. This damage means that she will no longer be able to exert herself physically and suffers dizzy spells and fatigue preventing her from participating in the physical activities of her profession (her life’s passion) as well as running around with her two energetic boys.

At 4 weeks post-partum, Lena underwent a bilateral mastectomy and several weeks of radiation, which concluded in December 2021. The chemo, surgery and radiation have produced clean margins for the cancerous masses – but that does not mean the ‘end’ of cancer. Currently, Lena has started a year of immunotherapy as well as a 10-year protocol of hormone therapy that will put her into chemical ‘menopause.’ Even through all this, there are still hard truths to hear; in her last oncologist meeting, he revealed there is still a 50% chance the cancer returns in the next 5 years as a more aggressive Stage 4. After hearing this news, Lena is evaluating what is important to her so she can learn to manage her disease while creating positive memories with her boys – and I hope we can show her that she is important to us.