It truly breaks my heart to be writing this update about our 1.5 year-old niece, River, and her mom, Liz. As some of you may already know, Liz was recently diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer and began a rigorous 6 month chemotherapy journey two weeks ago. What we didn’t know was that her sweet baby girl River was suffering from two growing Medulloblastomas at the same time. Anyone who knows River, will tell you that she is the brightest, sweetest, funniest girl, full of personality, love, and curiosity…. Okay, yes, she’s also VERY sassy! She adores her big sister Zoey, and would never let her puppy Ruby go on a walk alone.

Over the last few weeks, River began having balance issues, and then suddenly started throwing up too frequently. After a checkup and an MRI, doctors found two tumors on her brain. On Thursday 12/4/2025 River had emergency surgery to relieve the pressure surrounding her brain and will be facing another 8-12 hour operation on 12/9/2025 to hopefully remove both of the tumors. After surgery, River will need to stay in the hospital for about two weeks to recover and then move to an inpatient rehab facility to relearn all of her motor and neural skills. She will be expected to live in the facility for at least 6 weeks. With understanding Mom’s diagnosis and now baby River’s, we learned that River has Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, an extremely rare genetic cancer. After her in-patient rehab, River will begin chemotherapy and radiation immediately. We won’t know the full extent until after her surgery, but we’re preparing for a long road ahead.

Our family is overwhelmed, heartbroken, and doing everything we can to stay strong, but the emotional and financial impact is immense.

Not only will Liz need to continue to take care of herself, and get to and from her chemotherapy and doctors appointment, but both parents will be in and out of the hospital coordinating visits, taking unpaid time off work, covering travel, meals, parking, rehab needs, medications, and the long-term care that comes with a diagnosis like this.

So many people have asked how they can help. This GoFundMe will support hospital and surgical costs not covered by insurance, long-term oncology care, chemo, radiation, inpatient rehab, follow-up therapy, genetic testing, specialist visits, and future monitoring. It will also help with support for the family during months of missed work, transportation, parking, food, and day-to-day living expenses while at the hospital, anything River needs throughout this fight.

River lights up every room she enters. She deserves every chance to heal, grow, and live the beautiful life ahead of her. If you cannot donate, please share her story. Every share, prayer, message, and moment of support truly matters. Thank you for loving her, supporting our family, and standing with River in the fight of her life. We will continue to update everyone through the link below as we learn more after surgery.

https://www.giveinkind.com/inkinds/M9E6C5K/liz-and-co-updates-and-support

With love,

The Conti Family.