Hello, my name is Shantavia Norwood. I am asking for assistance because I am receiving chemotherapy treatment for Stage 2 TNBC (triple negative breast cancer) and will be unable to work for the remainder of 2025.

I have been an LPN for 12 years, providing the geriatric community with love, support, and compassion for 25 years! I am a mother of three, one of whom is my angel.

In December 2024, I was in a head-on car collision that should have claimed my life, but God said otherwise! After a complete workup in the emergency room, I was made aware of a nodule in my right breast. I was supposed to have a mammogram in August of 2024, which the insurance wouldn’t cover, stating that it had lapsed. Trying to understand why, when that was all I had to depend on, I made sure I completed the renewal paperwork because it was all I had—no unemployment or supplemental income to rely on. I hadn’t been to work since April 2024 due to losing my daughter and firstborn on 4/6/24 to domestic violence. I was told that she was driven around in a car with two gunshot wounds to the chest and left in his driveway to die after passing by several hospitals that could have possibly saved her life! I always pray for my children, but lately, I had been asking God to prepare me for the path in front of me because depression was another disease I began to battle when I lost my little sister in 2022 to a fentanyl overdose. I closed myself off for months, and knowing how deep I had fallen, I asked God to never let me go back there!

On 2/14/25, I was diagnosed with Stage 2B Triple Negative Breast Cancer and was told that it was aggressive! I’m not a stranger to the disease because I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2013 and beat that! So I have very high hopes of beating this AGAIN! However, can I beat the thoughts that overwhelm my mind? That’s the question that plays over and over in my head, and I pray all day, every day, to God that He heals me from every single thought and more so the breast cancer! I just recently went back to work in January 2025 and had to abruptly stop on February 25, 2025, to start chemotherapy! However, I am assisted, I will use any monetary assistance for bills since my treatment will be through September 2025, and afterwards, I choose a double mastectomy that will have a 6-8 week downtime. I’m a firm believer that anything helps, and if I am assisted, I will forever be grateful! Thank you in advance for your support; it will not go unused.