Hi, my name is Mary but most call me Red. I am a pinup model, makeup artist, wig attendant, friend, daughter, sister, girlfriend and so much more. Unfortunately, in 2025 at the age of 36, I was diagnosed with stage 3 tongue cancer and after surgery that removed and rebuilt 40% of my tongue and 30 rounds of radiation, I thought the fight was done, went back to work, started new creative endeavors and moved in with the love of my life.

Well, unfortunately, I was wrong.

My cancer came back - this time to the floor of my mouth and my jaw. Due to its even more aggressive and fast-growing nature, my medical team was thankfully able to get me scheduled in very quickly for my massive surgeries. This time it included reconstruction of the floor of my mouth as well as jaw bone/teeth removal. There was jaw reconstruction with bone and tissue from my leg, nerve damage repair as much as possible, a skin graft, a tracheotomy, a G-tube insertion, and so much more that it took over 11 hours of surgery to complete. We are still waiting on pathology but we plan to radiate again and add some chemotherapy as well as possibly some immunotherapy. Currently, I am learning to eat, swallow, speak, walk and breathe on my own again but with such an aggressive plan comes unexpected expenses.

I am very fortunate to have an amazing partner, AJ, who has been unbelievably supportive, driving me to appointments, doing just about all the chores at home, helping me physically and emotionally get through this and so much more while still working full time. He is who I want to spend the rest of my life with and as boring as it sounds, we just want to continue to live in our townhome rental together, pay our bills and eventually get married and start a family someday. But with cancer treatment, you have to treat someday as today with protective measures like egg freezing to keep fertility options open. But because of my extensive surgeries, finding a facility that will perform the egg freezing and retrieval is getting harder and harder and although we're exploring other options, we may have to pay for it all on our own.

With all that being said, my current financial situation is not enough to cover all these expenses this cancer journey brings.

I am grateful to how much is covered by OHIP here in Canada but not everything is and the recovery is very long, rough and frankly, scary. It would mean so much to have those fears of not being able to pay my rent/bills, unexpected expenses that come with these treatments (gas, parking/transportation, medications, etc), the cost of procedures that aren't covered (such as the eventual dental reconstruction of my teeth that were removed) and being able to pay whatever fees to build a family and a future with AJ be covered. With your support, they can be!

Please consider supporting me in my cancer battle and make a donation of ANY amount that you can! Every little bit helps build towards a future we are fighting so hard reach!

IG Fundraiser Announcement Video