My name is Vanessa, and I’m reaching out on behalf of my best friend of 20 years, a woman who has become my sister. Just two months ago, she was working hard, raising her two little girls on her own, and doing her best to make ends meet as a single mom. She is the rock of her family and her elderly mother, she’s the sole provider, and the one her family depends on for everything. 

Then, without warning, her world was turned upside down. What started as pain that doctors brushed aside has now led to a devastating diagnosis: stage 4 breast cancer that has spread aggressively to multiple bones in her body. She now has tumors along her spine, one causing a vertebrae fracture, and another pressing on the nerves in her hip, leaving her unable to walk without excruciating pain. She has just begun her first round of radiation, but this is only the beginning of an unimaginably long and difficult fight.

She is currently admitted into the hospital and cannot return to work. She has nobody to lean on. And yet, two beautiful young daughters still look to her for everything, for love, stability and hope. Right now, they need her to lean on, and she needs us. 

This cancer has taken away her health, her ability to work, and her independence. But what it cannot take is our compassion and the strength of community. All her life she's been kind and giving, always placing her friends and family's and even strangers needs before her own, but now she needs us more than ever.

Anything you can give helps, keep food on the table, cover the bills that don’t pause, and easing the crushing weight of financial stress while she focuses on fighting for her life. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly. She is in treatment, and juggling treatments, and managing pain so she cannot communicate as well as she’d like, but I will be here for her and for anyone who has questions. 

Her daughters deserve to keep their mother’s strength, love, and presence for as long as possible. Thank you for your generosity and helping lift Sam's financial burdens so she can focus on her fight.