Support Brooklyn's Battle Against Thyroid Cancer

Hi my name is Sianna, and this fundraiser is for my bestie!

Her granny-hobby loving, big hearted “old soul” caught up to her recently and she unfortunately was diagnosed with cancer. Stage I papillary thyroid carcinoma. Here’s a little something from Brooklyn’s heart to yours:

“Hi friends! If you’re here reading this, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart (which is, admittedly, a pretty deep heart) :)

I went in for a general health check up in March with ~ yet another ~ request to check my thyroid. You see, over the past 6 or so years, I’ve had my thyroid checked yearly. I just knew something was wrong. Yet every time they checked my blood, or felt my neck, everything looked good and felt good (turns out micro tumors are hard to feel..). But in April, something finally showed, and it would be the most unfortunate development.

On the one hand, thyroid cancer is VERY treatable with great success rates. On the other hand, BECAUSE it’s so successful, there is only one treatment option, which was very very hard for me to come to terms with, and that is surgery. Because what my Dr felt that day was a very large lymph node above my collar bone which led to an ultrasound, which revealed that the cancer has spread; this left me with one option: to operate and remove my thyroid (along with all affected lymph nodes) and to follow up with a radioactive iodine to treat and kill all remaining cancer cells & thyroid cells, which will reduce the possibility of a recurrence later in life. Sadly, having the thyroid removed means that I’ll be dependent on a synthetic hormone for the rest of my life. As you can imagine, finding out I’ll be dependent on drs and big pharma for the rest of my life, at only 28, has been very difficult to come to terms with.

In this bleak and very frustrating time, there’s hope. But it’s hope that is pre-determined by surgery and an additional treatment that will hit me with extreme fatigue. A treatment which I’ll need to isolate from children and loved ones. A treatment which I will need at least a year to recover from. Having cancer really, truly, is just a hard and difficult thing. Hope looks very different this time around, and it’s been an overwhelming and frustrating journey, but still - it’s hope. Hope for a future yet. With every lungful of frustration, I exhale gratefulness.”

Unfortunately, no one can prepare themselves for finding out they have cancer. Fortunately, Brooklyn has insurance that will cover most of her costs. However due to her treatment options, Brooklyn will need to take some time off of work and school in order to heal her body. We know these are difficult times with everything becoming more and more expensive, but we decided as Brooklyn’s community to come together to support her and her little family in this way. A little goes a long way, and she has felt all the love from her people so far ❤️