My name is Kelsey, a friend of Lea's helping get this page set up so her friends and family can help her on this very long journey to a healthy future. I have come to know Lea to be a positive ray of sunlight, who always greets me with a smile, is caring, and considerate, and overall a pure gem to be around. Those who know her are truly blessed.

Below is her story in her words.

In 2020 right after I graduated with my BS in Accounting I started feeling pain and had a lot of bleeding in my anal area. It got worse over the next few months, but I fought through the pain to make sure my son, who was 4 at the time had a great holiday season. I went to Kaiser March of 2021 through August 2021 and saw doctors who sort of dismissed my symptoms. Chopped it up to me needing more fiber. I had a sigmoidoscopy and a colonoscopy and both came back negative. The doctors just left it there. I called in one night crying to an ER nurse who had me speak to one of the doctors on-call and he made an appointment for me to come in to see him based on what I was telling him. Went to see him the following week and after 2 mins of a examining me he told me things didn’t look normal in my anal area and requested a CT to be done immediately. I waited a month before getting in all while I was feeling more pain and bleeding more and more each day. I couldn’t even sit and could barely walk at that point. After my CT he saw something that concerned him and ordered an MRI to be done. Another month before I had this done. End of October and I had the MRI done. While still waiting for the results I rushed myself to the ER from work on November 8th. I have a son and through all the pain I still needed to work. After 6 and a half hours of waiting I received an ER bed and shortly after I found out I had cancer. Unfortunately, the doctors thought I knew already and just started speaking to me about the next steps. Worse way to find out something that huge while being alone. I stayed at the hospital 8 days and had 2 painful biopsies. I met with an oncologist a few weeks later and she along with other doctors there told me to avoid having a Colostomy bag for the rest of my life at a young age, I just needed to start chemotherapy for 6 months to a year to shrink the tumor and remove it with surgery. They also told me it traveled to my liver, but didn’t speak of surgery.

I started chemo December 1st 2021 and by April 2022 I could barely walk and sit again. I moved to Oregon shortly after in June and found an amazing team of doctors who basically let me know what I already knew about Kaiser’s shortcomings. After meeting with them and getting examined they saw that my tumor was protruding from my anal area by about 2 centimeters and that I was misinformed about my tumor. No matter how long I did chemotherapy I was going to have to have a Colostomy bag for life. Hard news to hear. After having an MRI done they rushed me into surgery a week later. My life was forever changed afterwards, but I’m alive and here for my son. I was rushed to the hospital 2 other times after surgery. I ended up having May-Thurner Syndrome and a blood clot from my pelvis down past my knee and had to have that immediately removed and a week later a clot traveled to my lung. So along with Cancer, I have to spend my life on chemotherapy and blood thinners. I had a second surgery December 2, 2022 to remove a large tumor from my liver. I am currently unable to work and need assistance with rent and bills.

All donations, large or small, are appreciated and will go to help Lea not have to stress about her monthly bills as she works to continue to recover and kick cancer's booty!