PLEASE READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE ...

Beloved community, it’s Rhiannon.

I’m reaching out because the last six months have brought some of the most intense and challenging experiences of my life.

At the end of October, I found a mass in my right breast. After multiple imaging studies and biopsies, I received a Stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis.

Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to care for my body and move through this with clarity and intention. Alongside my team of doctors at UCSD Cancer Center, I am pursuing an integrative treatment plan that will require multiple forms of care over the next six months.

This diagnosis has sadly coincided with the unexpected loss of the longest, and most meaningful romantic relationship of my life—one I believed would be a source of support through chapters of illness and hardship.

I have a very tender heart, and the combination of deep heartbreak and a life-threatening diagnosis has been devastating, and at times incapacitating.

Unfortunately, life was not done handing me heavy situations.

In these last two months, I nearly lost someone very close to me to a suicide attempt that required multiple hospitalizations. I dropped everything, and showed up fully, in all the ways I knew how.

It required every last drop of goodness I had to remain present, grounded, and supportive for someone whose needs were more immediate than my own. Thankfully, she is now supported, safe, and stable.

Navigating all of this at once has stretched me in ways I never anticipated, and in some ways that I will never fully be able to explain.

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I’m beginning to come up for air, but I need help.

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The cumulative weight of these experiences has left me with a level of physical, emotional, and financial strain that I have never before experienced .

While my acupuncture practice has enabled me to support myself these last ten years– and provide deep healing to patients experiencing everything from spinal injuries to fertility problems– it has not given me the opportunity to build a significant nest egg, or emergency fund.

And while I am using medical insurance wherever possible, as a self-employed person, I don’t have access to federal or state disability support.

I am continuing to work in a limited capacity, but the cost of treatment has already exhausted my savings.

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I don't currently have the stability needed to cover the remaining cost of treatment, and support my basic living expenses.

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I feel as though I'm at the bottom of a near-empty well, and I need my community to pour in, so I can once again rise to the top.

I’m asking for your support.

Your contribution will help cover approximately *six months* of integrative cancer treatment, and give me the space to focus on healing my body without the constant stress of financial hardship.

If you feel called to help, any amount truly makes a difference.

Sharing this page is also deeply appreciated.

**For those who would like to support beyond donating, I'm currently booking acupuncture and bodywork sessions directly. Please message me or text me to schedule. Your support in that way is also meaningful.

It is not easy for me to ask for help,

but I know I cannot do this alone… I was raised to be independent, but I've since learned that INTERdependence is far more powerful.

We need each other, and this is one of those moments.

Thank you for being part of my life, my support system, and my community.

With love,

Rhiannon