Support Kathi Schaff's Journey to Health

Hello family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and all others who share in our great love for Kathi Schaff.

This is Kathi’s friend, Maria, inviting you to join in supporting Kathi in her current journey toward health.

If you know Kathi, you know how deeply she cares about the people in her life and in the greater world, and how she uses nearly all her time, energy, intellect, and resources to help others - both personally and professionally - and to great effect. Whether it's peer reviewed articles she digs up and sends (in spades!), handmade beautiful pottery she donates for a fundraiser, a low-sugar dessert she contributes for a shower of a friend having pre-natal diabetes, or just being there to listen, Kathi always, thoughtfully and unhesitatingly, looks for how she can help.

While we wish Kathi was not in a situation to be needing help herself, she is.

As members of her community, you also likely know that Kathi has been contending with a breast cancer diagnosis, and related challenges, since October of 2023. While she is very fortunate to have caught the cancer early and it remains contained in the breast milk duct, her journey has not been easy. She tried a round of an experimental treatment to shrink the cancer through medication, but her body was not able to tolerate the drug, causing many challenging side effects. When it started affecting her vision, her oncologist had her stop taking it and move directly toward surgical removal of the cancer.

Kathi is currently preparing for a single mastectomy surgery on June 6th, and will be incurring some significant related costs. She has chosen to work with experienced and innovative surgeons, Drs. Anne and Ziv Peled, because they are trying new approaches with nerve preservation. They have had a lot of success and Kathi has spoken with several women who had mastectomies with them and are happy with both their experience and the results. You can read more about the surgery team here: https://people.com/human-interest/breast-cancer-surgeon-anne-peled-survives-cancer/

Nerve preservation offers Kathi the best opportunity to be as close to her current self as possible post-surgery, but because it is a newer approach, it isn’t covered by insurance. Additional costs include items that are supportive for Kathi’s recovery such as a new, more supportive mattress, mastectomy pillows, recovery clothing to hold the drains that help move out body fluid, grocery delivery, supplements, etc. as well as her family traveling to be with her and helping to cover their stay.

Kathi was very hesitant to let me set this up, but ultimately agreed because she was worried about her parents taking on too much in support of her. This gives us an opportunity to come together as her community and help share the financial burden of her journey toward health, reflecting back to her some of the incredible supportive energy she is always bringing to each of us and our shared world.

Please write to me with any questions regarding this fundraiser using the messaging capabilities provided on this site.

If you are looking for updates on how Kathi is doing, please visit https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kathischaff. Her family will post on her Caring Bridge page when she is out of surgery. Kathi may not be up to answering calls, texts, emails, etc. so this is the place to go. It will help her caregivers as well to be able to put information in one place. There will be links here on how to help, meals and rides needed, etc.