Hello everyone on behalf of my children and I. Thank you for taking a bit of time to read my story and considering helping.

My name is Colleen and I am a 54 year old mother of 2 boys (27 and 20). I have worked for the last 19 years in the auto industry and have done everything I possibly can to make sure my boys are taken care of.

I have recently been told that I have Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer that is stage 4, inoperable and has given me a life sentence of 12-18 months. More of my story is below if you wish to read it.

Unfortunately this devastating diagnosis has caused me to be unable to continue on at work which has created a challenging financial situation. We are in desperate need of assistance to cover some medical bills, establishing end of life decisions and to make sure my boys don’t have any unfair burdens to deal with as they work their way through the grief they will be soon feeling.

We ask for your positive vibes and if you could help us with these finances. ANYTHING, absolutely anything would be so helpful for me and my boys. Thank you all very very much!

About a month and a half ago, I had a blood test done at the request of my diabetic specialist because I dropped about 20 lbs in a very short period of time without explanation. I have been managing my diabetes for well over 20 years now.

So the test they ordered was a C-Peptide test which measures the amount of insulin the pancreas is creating. They found out that my pancreas wasn’t making any insulin at all anymore. They then put me on insulin injections and ordered an ultrasound to see if they could see what was going on. That was on Friday March 15th. On Saturday morning my middle sister passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer and on Sunday afternoon, yes, Sunday, my family physician called me at home, from his home to tell me that he was sending me for an urgent CT scan because there was something on the ultrasound he didn’t like the looks of. The CT of my abdomen was done two days later on the Tuesday and the following Monday my family doctor informed me that they had found cancer in my pancreas, liver and lymph nodes in my abdomen. I swear I thought that was the hardest day of my life, having to tell not only my kids, but my 98 year old mother that another of her children has cancer.

Things moved very quickly, I had appointments with a pancreatic surgeon, a full oncology team, had another CT scan of my chest and head, and just yesterday I had a liver biopsy done. I am hoping they got enough information from that to be able to kick start my treatment. If not, they will be doing a pancreatic biopsy next Tuesday.

Through all my appointments I have learned that I have Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer, Stage 4. Inoperable because of it’s advanced stage. When we asked about what kind of time we could expect, we were told 12 – 18 months.