Support For Heather While She Fights Cancer

Hello, my name is Emily and I've had the privilege of knowing Heather Fernandez Whitlock since middle school. Heather is deep, funny, thoughtful, and humble. She's quick to laugh and loves an adventure. As long as I've known her, she's had a thirst for knowledge and loves to learn.

 

For the last 16 years, Heather has been a dedicated full-time stay-at-home wife and mom to her five beautiful kids. Several months ago, Heather's marriage unexpectedly dissolved, and she found herself alone and facing an unpredictable financial future. Embracing her new reality, Heather knew that she'd eventually need to find a job, build a career. In preparation for that, she began taking online classes while balancing the day-to-day care for her kids. To keep her spirits up, she started the 52 Hike Challenge and enjoyed pushing herself to new limits and connecting with nature and her friends.

 

During this time, she discovered a lump on her neck and had a biopsy. A few weeks later, it was confirmed that she has Stage 2B Hodgkins Lymphoma. While highly treatable, it will require Heather to undergo six months of intense chemotherapy, starting June 20th.

 

Cancer is already taken its toll, forcing Heather to take a leave of absence from her classes to focus on caring for her children and herself during treatment. This is where our community can step in and step up to help Heather during this challenging time.

 

Donating to her fund will help provide for immediate and long-term needs:

-already mounting treatment costs

-transportation costs

-doctor recommended specialty diet for nausea

-holistic treatments

-comfort treatments to help with symptoms

-housekeeping and shopping assistance

 

**A quote from Heather's Facebook page on April 30th**

 

"I have lots of family and friends who are loving and supporting me. It’s just my newest journey. What I finally realized this past year is that life actually is just a series of hard times one after the other. Life is just hard. There are good times sprinkled in. I used to think throughout my life, “if I can just get past this hard time and back to ‘normal’ easy life”. But there never was an easy life. Life is hard almost always and the easy times are here and there. And that’s ok. That’s true for almost all humans. We’re all in this together you guys. We all have our hard. We just need to be kind and loving to one another. Love you all."

 

Heather, we love you and are inspired by you. Stay strong and we're always here for you!