Donation protected
I am writing on behalf of Katie Warden: daughter, sister, friend, registered nurse, and recent unlucky recipient of an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis.
In September, Katie found a lump in her breast that turned out to be triple negative Stage 3B breast cancer. Briefly, here’s what that means:
- Triple-negative: Triple-negative breast cancer cells do not have estrogen or progesterone receptors and make very little, if any, HER2 proteins. 10-15% of all breast cancer cases are classified as triple-negative breast cancer. This type of breast cancer tends to grow and spread faster than other types and is more likely to come back after treatment.
- Stage 3B: The tumor has a 90% growth rate, which is extremely high. It has spread outside of Katie’s breast tissue and into her lymph nodes. It has not yet reached her chest wall or metastasized to other parts of her body, though her doctors are monitoring a small spot on her lung.
In sum, this is an aggressive cancer that will need complex and difficult treatment. Or, in Katie’s words, “it’s a gnarly one.” (Even now, she manages to be one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.)
Katie has already begun weekly chemotherapy and regular immunotherapy, which will last for about six months. A month after she finishes chemo, she will undergo surgery. The specifics of the procedure will depend on the results of the chemotherapy, but it’s likely to be extreme. She’ll have four weeks of recovery time, followed by five weeks of daily radiation. Less than a month after radiation, she’ll have another surgery.
The process will take almost a year—and if Katie’s care team determines that she needs additional rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the timeline could be even longer.
The financial implications of this situation are severe. The early stages of treatment have wiped out Katie’s PTO, which means she won’t get paid for any shifts she has to miss due to appointments, procedure recovery, and treatment side effects. Even just covering her basic expenses for the next year is going to be challenging, and her insurance is already fighting her tooth and nail on costly treatments that can dramatically alter her survival odds.
Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story. Katie’s family is still recovering emotionally and financially from the tragic loss of her father, Steven, to cancer in 2021. This summer, a storm displaced them from their home, and most of Katie’s family has been sleeping at their church for over three months. No family should be forced to endure so much hardship in such a short time, but life is not known for playing fair.
$40,000 would replace Katie’s anticipated lost income for the duration of her treatment, plus her out-of-pocket maximum for 2024 and 2025 and an additional cushion for unexpected expenses that may arise over the next year. Your donation can meaningfully alleviate Katie’s financial stress while she endures chemotherapy and radiation, recovers from surgery, and fights this aggressive cancer.
I’ve known Katie since 2008, when we met during our first week of freshman year at Augustana College (now Augustana University). I have countless memories of her brilliant and lightning-fast quips making me laugh until my stomach hurt. We once spent an entire afternoon holed up in a dark hotel room in Greece together because we both got sick on a school trip, and even that den of shared misery (and the moussaka we choked down afterward, still fighting nausea) is something I remember fondly.
Katie has a gift for making hard days a little brighter with her hilarious observations or her unfailing kindness and positivity. Now it’s our turn to shine that light back to her and help her through this difficult season.
On behalf of Katie and her family, thank you for listening to Katie’s story and for choosing to give.
Organizer and beneficiary
Maggie Taylor
Organizer
Omaha, NE
Katharine Warden
Beneficiary