Hello, my name is Charlie and this will be the hardest thing I will ever have to ask for. I am setting this up for my wife, my partner, and my absolute best friend, Lauren. In January of 2026, our family learned the devastating news that Lauren was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our world, our life, and our family were shocked, and everything came to a sudden stop. The great news in all of this so far is that the cancer was caught early and Lauren is in a very low stage. All of the pieces and parts in her now cancer journey are moving, and her team of surgeons and medical care providers are helping us along this process.

To say that Lauren is amazing doesn't do her character and personality justice. This beautiful, amazing, complex, smart, and funny woman is all of those things and more. More than a wife to me and a mother to our son Matthew, Lauren makes this world just a little better because she is in it. Lauren is strong and steadfast in her resolve to be healed from this diagnosis and is looking forward to moving past it. In this journey we call life together, this is merely a rough road that will smooth out soon.

As we eagerly wait for Lauren to have surgery, the realities of our current present press against us. We are not ignorant of the current challenges of what faces everyone in day-to-day life; budgets run tight for all and seeking charity is not something approached lightly but it seems unavoidable in such a situation as this. Cancer drains much more than just someone's finances. The reality that faces us in this situation is that we need help. Both Lauren and I work, we have a son, we have bills, the same story as everyone else. We are a dual-income family with our heads barely above water and now that cancer has entered our story, this is going to be a sizable blow to our finances even with insurance. I struggle to ask, simply because I do not know how to.

Lauren's care, her well-being, far outweigh any cost or dollar amount I can think of. When the person you love, with your whole being, is in this situation, not only do I want her to be healed and feel well, but also not feel the anxiety of the cost and worries surrounding all of this. Cancer doesn't care if you have a mortgage, need gas for your car, food and daycare needs for your family, the medical bills that are already starting, it doesn't care and still happens all the same.

If you find yourself reading this and inclined to help this little family of ours, we thank you. There is no bottom to the thanks and gratitude we'd have.

Lauren is going to fight and beat this, I and our son will stand with her through all of it, and I hope you will too.

Thank you.