Hi, my name is Preston. This is my cousin April and her husband, James. In April of last year, they decided to get married and even bought a house the following month. They were over the moon! A few short months later, I moved down to help since April found out she had stage 2 rectosigmoid cancer (colorectal cancer). Since then, it’s seemed like curveball after curveball. She’s had a humongous blood clot form from her neck down her right arm (the side her original port was placed). She’s had to get teeth pulled due to chemo rotting them away, causing infections. Massive anxiety and panic attacks, as well as extremely painful neuropathy and cold sensitivity, have caused many sleepless nights.

During her first set of chemo rounds, she tried to work as much as she could but had to use all of her saved-up PTO for appointments and infusions. She is now on FMLA since she had to have surgery to remove the cancerous part of her colon, which now has left her with a temporary ileostomy bag. We celebrated the fact that she was “cancer-free” and thought we would be able to put this all behind us until we found out the pathology report showed microscopic cancer cells in the surrounding lymph nodes. This meant she was moved up stage 3 since it penetrated deeper than previously thought and has a higher risk of spreading. She is now on the 2nd round out of 6 infusions. April has no strength to be able to get out of bed at this point due to the combination of the chemo and the ostomy bag.

Her husband has taken the vow “in sickness and in health” very seriously as he is one of the main people taking care of April and their 14-year-old daughter. Although he gets some income from being a retired Veteran it’s barely enough to cover even half of the monthly bills. That being said, it’s put them in a very compromising position since he’s unable to work when she needs round-the-clock care. With the huge amount of typical monthly bills and the medical debt growing higher and higher, they asked me to make a GoFundMe for them to try and help ease some of the burden. We appreciate any and all donations, prayers, and shares during this difficult time.