Local Mother Diagnosed with Rare Lymphoma

On Friday Nov 8th 2019, I received a call from my younger sister Dani, that I will never forget. She had just been diagnosed with a rare form of Lymphoma. We were in shock. How could this be? She’s 34 years old, a single mother to a 6 year old little boy. She‘s going to school, working two part-time jobs, barely treading water...Now this? 

BIA-ALCL is a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma caused by textured implants. This disease has just recently come to light in the Medical world. No one had any idea this was an associated risk. There have only been 573 cases diagnosed thus far worldwide, and 33 deaths. 

There are two device companies whose implants have been associated with BIA-ALCL: Allergan and Sientra. Dani has Sientra implants.  Allergan has the majority of the cases by far, in fact, Dani’s case is only the fifth known case from the Sientra implants ever.  Allergan has pulled their product from the market voluntarily, Sientra has not. 

Sientra is actually based in Santa Barbara, where we grew up. They are a local company, Dani is a local woman with a cancer that has been directly linked to their product and all they have offered is to pay medical expenses that her insurance doesn’t cover. Unfortunately, she is going to have to leave school temporarily and is not going to be able to work while she has surgery, recovers etc. We would hope they would do the right thing and offer help, but thus far have not and we need to prepare for the battle ahead. 

We firmly believe Dani is going to beat this cancer and we hope she will not have to undergo further treatments after her upcoming surgeries, but we know she will need help in the coming months. 

This fund has been established to help with rent, utilities, food, childcare etc. for Dani while she kicks this cancer’s ass. If we can help relieve her financial stress, our hope is that she can just focus on recovery. 

Most importantly we’re raising money for her first surgery scheduled November 25th. She will be traveling to Sutter Hospital in San Francisco to work with a team of specialists familiar with this rare lymphoma. 

If you know Dani, you know she would be the first to help any of you if you needed it. She very involved in charity work, and loves her community. I’m praying this community surrounds her in the love and support she so desperately needs at this time.

Thank you