We're raising money to help Rhonda with living expenses for herself and her boys. Rhonda was diagnosed with an aggressive cancerous brain tumor (gioblastoma) this summer. She has had an emergency craniotomy, which removed 90% of the tumor; she recently completed radiation treatments, and she will soon begin 6 months of chemotherapy.

Good news! There is reason for hope because Rhonda was healthy and active before this diagnosis, and she may be eligible for some targeted therapies due to rare genetic markers that are present only in a handful of similar types of glioblastoma cases worldwide.

But the family needs financial support. Rhonda is a single parent of two teenage boys. She has lost vision, can no longer drive, and had to close her business, Hutton Family Eye Care. She has applied for SSDI. Under normal circumstances, without the government shutdown, her review would be expedited, due to her cancer diagnosis, but this support may still be months away.

Please donate to help with insurance premiums, utilities, and housing payments.

(Required disclosure: This fundraiser is organized by Sandy Beverly, owner of Bluestem Yoga in Lawrence, KS. [Rhonda was a Bluestem regular until she got sick.] All funds raised will go to Rhonda, to use in the ways that are most helpful to her family.)

Here's more of Rhonda's story, in her own words:

I had what I believed to be a persistent sinus infection in May 2025 and quickly ended up in the LMH ER. I was diagnosed with an aggressive cancerous brain tumor called glioblastoma. I had an emergency 10 -hour craniotomy on July 1 at KU Medical Center, removing 90% of the tumor. I have already completed radiation treatments and will be on 6 months of chemotherapy while being monitored closely by KU Med. My 75-year-old parents have been transporting me back and forth thus far.

I have always been fiercely independent and hard working. I worked my way through KU and then optometry school as a first-generation college student from Perry-Lecompton.

As an optometrist, my heart led me to work in underserved communities and neighborhoods throughout the Houston area then eventually in Topeka, focusing on kids in need. It was my core belief that every child should have a full eye exam to give them the best chance at success from an early age. (See the wonderful Topeka Capital-Journal article about Rhonda here.)

Out of work during the height of the pandemic, I started Hutton Family Eye Care, to provide affordable high quality care to all ages. I was so grateful to be able to provide the care I felt people deserved and to support and raise my two sons as an only parent since 2014.