Hillary has been a long term advocate, trainer and pillar of the CAD CAM dental community, nationwide. She has developed long lasting relationships with the dental community. Those relationships are far reaching though out the country with dental manufactures and distributor's, but her best served are her customers. Hillary has always put her customers first and has always been known for her kind care and attention that she delivers during her trainings and her support, afterwards. Anyone who has met or worked with Hillary, knows her work ethic and how much this illness has caused her to suffer. She loves her work so much that even after her diagnosis, she went back to work, doing what she loves.

Hillary is no longer employed, as her position with her company was eliminated. She now struggles with her daily bills and her rising medical bills. Her stage 4 colon cancer has returned and spread to several lymph nodes in the abdominal region. She is currently trying and FDA approved treatment combo therapy. She will need abdominal surgery in the future, but needs to become stable first.

Her full story is below:

Just a few short weeks after relocating to North Carolina in July 2022, Hillary was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer. A CT scan showed a colorectal tumor and a huge ovarian mass measuring 13 cm that was causing her severe abdominal pain. After 6 months of grueling chemo and a massive surgery she still continues to fight. Please read Hillary’s story below and help in any way you can so she can continue to focus on treatments and her cancer journey.

Hillary is a 52 year old single Mom of 2 boys (16 and 20) who moved away from family and friends to start a new life in North Carolina. She was excited to start her role in a new area and moved with both her sons. Shortly after unpacking and getting her oldest son ready for college she started having severe abdominal pains which urgent care diagnosed as constipation. A day later she could no longer function and went to the hospital assuming she had appendicitis. A CT scan was taken, and a colon and huge ovarian mass was found. At first, they told her she had ovarian cancer but bloodwork confirmed that it was colon cancer with a rare metastasis to her ovary. She was devastated and was provided with an immediate appointment with a surgeon and oncologist at Duke.

After colonoscopy and consultations, Hillary’s case was presented to the tumor board. The treatment plan was to do 6 months of chemo to see if they could shrink the mass and then surgery to remove as much cancer as possible. Before she could start, she needed to have surgery for a colostomy and port. Hillary’s life was on the line and she persevered through these initial procedures with as much grace and dignity she could summon for her children. The likelihood of survival seemed really diminished based on the rare metastasis that was causing other health issues. Her abdomen became inflated and she was in so much pain she could barely walk.

Hillary started a six month journey of Folfoxiri plus Avastin. This is pretty much throwing all the chemo drugs at once and is extremely difficult with a 3 day regimen every other week. Again, Hillary remained positive and tried to keep her spirits up throughout the process. She had a ton of issues but smiled through her treatments. At some point her ovarian mass was so large that it pushed the colon through her colostomy. Another procedure was performed to revise the colostomy.

Her big surgery was finally scheduled which included 4 Dr’s and was scheduled for 9 hours. If the tumor was too big to remove they told her they would have to stop and send her to radiation. Luckily the tumor came right out in full and the surgery was only 5 hrs. She had a colon resection and removal of the large ovarian mass along with her tubes and ovaries. Her colostomy was reversed as well. Pathology results showed her cancer mutation as KRAS G12 C which is a rare mutation. 3 percent of colon cancer patients have this mutation. The surgery was successful and Hillary was in remission.

After 6 months of being cancer free some abdominal lymph nodes were found. She is now fighting this with a newly approved treatment and needs to be stable before possibly removing the small mets. She needs our help to continue the fight for medical expenses, travel to Mayo Clinic and City of Hope, and past debts relative to lower disability pay and living expenses. Unexpectedly Henry Schein laid off Hillary’s training team and she will have to pay for Cobra Healthcare that runs out in 3 months and will be an exorbitant monthly amount. She is unemployed at this time and battling new treatments. No one should have to worry about how to pay their basic bills while trying to beat cancer. Every small amount helps towards this goal. Please help lift Hillary up with your support. She needs to focus on her health and remain as positive as possible during this extremely stressful and trying time.