Teresa's Travel Expenses To Be With Her Sister

I am Teresa’s friend Jess. I am starting this fundraiser to hopefully lessen Teresa's stress as she and her family say goodbye to her sister Hilary, much too soon.

Hilary was diagnosed with breast cancer in approximately the spring of 2021. She started receiving treatments and her prognosis was promising. In August of 2022, Hilary and her family were on a trip, when Hilary fell in her friend's front yard. She was rushed to the hospital, only for the doctors to find that her cancer had metastasized to her brain. Teresa immediately made an extended trip to the east coast at this time, as the prognosis was uncertain, using the majority of money she had in her savings. Hilary made a remarkable recovery from this event and was discharged. Soon after, her family and friends started fundraising for treatments. About a week ago, Hilary and her family received the devastating news that she was diagnosed with Leptomeningeal Disease, which means the cancer has spread to her cerebrospinal fluid. Leptomeningeal Disease is fatal, and Hilary was given a prognosis of 8-16 weeks if treatments went well.

Teresa started looking at her finances, talking to her supervisors, and looking at flights and plans to go and say goodbye to Hilary. In an attempt to prepare and save more money, she was looking at making the trip at the beginning of April since it would still be before the 8-week lower limit of Hilary's prognosis. Unfortunately, Hilary's condition has deteriorated in the past week, and she and her family have now been told that Hilarly likely only has days left to live.

Teresa spent most of her remaining savings on a plane ticket and flew out today to say goodbye and to be with her sister and her sister's husband and two sons. Teresa is still new to her job, and only has a few days of PTO built up, so she will likely be taking at least 2 weeks unpaid. She also has the financial burden of plane tickets from California, a rental car, and food, while she will still have bills to pay.

Every little bit helps and will go directly to Teresa to assist with her travel expenses during this tragic but important trip. If there are any raised funds that Teresa ends up not needing for travel expenses, she is planning on donating them to Hilary's family to assist with their financial needs during this difficult time.

Thank you all so much in advance, and please hug your loved ones tight, today and every day. We never know how many days we have left to cherish them.