This gofundme is for support in my journey to fight breast cancer stage 3. We live in rural South Africa and the hospital is 3 hours away from home. This on it's own is a huge expense, as we definitely have to make 28 trips over the next year and a bit. If this was all we would somehow manage, but it's not all.

My treatment is 3 different things. I am busy with 6 rounds of chemo 21 days apart. This is followed by 20 days of radiation; monday to friday 5 days a week 4 weeks long.

The last part is target treatment. I have her2 positive, the most aggressive and fast growing breast cancer of all the breast cancers. Very dangerous, but also very treatable, if you get the full treatment.

I need 18 rounds of Herceptin and Perjeta 21 days apart, starting with the first round of chemo. The insurance covers the herceptin, but the perjeta was rejected. Perjeta is the 'cheaper' one of the two, but the total is still over 400.000 rand (20.000 euro / 22.000 dollars)

We do have money for a part of the treatment, but not all. My friend Tanya is running 21km on 5th April for me. She's going to do a sponsor run, the hippo half marathon. You can support her in her run and hopefully we can raise enough money for my full treatment.

I am forever thankful for her kind gesture

This is the gofundme that can be used to sponsor Tanya in the run for the medical expenses during this journey that I am taking.

Below I will write about my journey so far, but I first want to thank you for your support. It means the world to me. I honestly wouldn't have asked if it was just for me, but it's not just for me, it's also for my wonderful 6 year old Owen. Thinking of him growing up without me breaks my heart. If I can somehow get a better change of surviving/beating this I have to take it for him.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, I don't think you will ever really understand what it means to me

How did I get here?

In July I was chatting with a friend and she mentioned a mammogram truck was coming to town. I am 37 and I thought it wouldn't hurt to do a random check on that. We went to the mammogram truck and my result came back good, with the exception of a little bit of thick/fat tissue in the left breast, but absolutely nothing to worry about. Yeah for me! On the bottom was written that I should come again in a year for my routine check (that's what's recommended in South Africa, my friend had the same)

In November, during our trip to Kruger I felt a lump in my left breast. Knowing what I knew from the scans I figured it was just that same harmless thing they mentioned in July. Time went on and I didn't gave it much attention until my breast started to become really sore around Christmas. Pain and a lump didn't seem good and as soon as the new year started and everything was working normal again I asked when the mammogram truck was coming again. Lucky for me that was already on the 15th of January.

I went, did the mammogram and was at that point already informed that there was something on the scan, which off course was no surprise, but I thought/hoped something innocent.

Early Friday morning I received the results via email. One big mambo jumbo of ginormous words. One big hocus pocus and the only normal English in there was 'go see a surgeon' (very scary).

I contacted the local general particion and told him about the result I didn't understand. He asked me to send over everything and shortly after I got the message that I had an appointment with a surgeon in Richards Bay on the 22nd of January. The doctor told me that he couldn't give me much more information, there was a mass in my breast that's not suppose to be there. From the scans they can't say wether is harmless or dangerous.

Going to Richards Bay is a 6 hour trip total for us. It got me a bit stressed as the 22nd was also the day my family from the Netherlands would arrive. However if they put so much speed on something (in Africa) you know you have to go. Luckily the appointment was early morning and my family would only arrive around 7pm

On the 22nd we went to the surgeon and it didn't really go as I thought. I thought he would tell me not to worry, maybe give me some medication and it would be gone. That was wishfull thinking. The doctor looked at the scans and examined my breast and was very clear. That thing, whatever it is needs to come out.

He told me that normally breast cancer is something he wouldn't jump to immediately, but with the scans and his own finding he informed me that my changes were 50/50. Normally the changes are 95-98% that a lump in the breast is ok. I just went from 95% to 50% and that was quite a lot to take in.

Technically I had 3 options, but actually only good one. The doctor would operate on me and remove the whole lump. After it was removed he would leave me open on the table and the lump would go the lab and a pathologist would have a look. If it turned out to be benign (harmless) he would close me up again and if it looked like cancer he would keep on operating and remove the lymph nodes in my armpit. If that was the case I would wake up from the operation with a drain sticking out of my armpit. No drain was good and a drain would be bad news

It was so much to take in and I almost didn't dare to ask him when, but I did and he replied 'I would like to do it tomorrow'! The timing couldn't be worse with my family arriving from the other side of the world for only 2 weeks.

I explained the situation and he told me that 2 weeks wouldn't make a difference, but only 2 weeks. He immediately booked me in for the day after my family left.

It wasn't an easy choice to make, but I just didn't want to miss time with my family and we did tell the doctor if he felt it wasn't a good idea to wait 2 weeks that we wouldn't do it and that we would stay. The doctor was kind and had all the time in the world for us and explained why 2 weeks really wasn't a problem

We made it home before my family arrived and the 2 weeks we had together were amazing and I am glad I choose to wait, especially with what I know now.

Thursday the 6th of February was the day of the operation and it was really scary. Going to sleep not knowing what they would find and I might wake up with a drain in your armpit or not. If it was just an innocent something there would jusr be a bandage on my breast, if they thought it was cancer I would have a drain. That part definitely freaked me out most, finding out what it is the moment I open my eyes (alone) after being under heavy anesthesia. I so prayed that I would wake up without a drain, but I didn't. The operation wasn't suppose to take long and after I opened my eyes the first thing I noticed was the clock on the wall. I had been out for 2,5 hours, that couldn't be good. I lifted up my operation gown and saw the drain stuck between my breasts. In that moment it was all to much to take in and I needed a little bit of time to gather myself again

Shortly after the doctor arrived and told me it didn't look good. The lump had all the signs of cancer and he decided to move on to my lymph nodes in my armpit. He removed the whole bottom layer and 2 of them didn't look normal. The lump and nodes were send in for futher test and the results would come the following Monday. Unfortunately due to circumstances I only got the result on Wednesday. The surgeon informed me that the lump was indeed cancer and it was found in 4 of the 9 removed lymph nodes.

My drain was still given lots of fluid so it had to stay in for 11 days, very uncomfortable and not painless.

Monday the 17th of February was a long day, but we are thankful that everything could be done on the same day.

Firstly we got my awefull drain removed by the surgeon and he had all the time in the world to answer the questions he could answer. He gave me a better picture of everything, but now that I had cancer I needed a new doctor: an oncologist. The surgeon made sure that I could see the oncologist that same day, so I didn't had to make another trip (so much appreciated)

At the cancer treatment centre I had a lot of tests done to make sure the breast cancer didn't spread anywhere elese.

I met my oncologist and was diagnosed with breastcancer stage 3. She told me about the treatment plan and the first next steps

On Wednesday the 26th of February I had a port placed above my right breast during an operation. This port will make chemo and target treament easier. They can give it to me through the port.

After the operation and xrays (to double check the placement) it was time for my first round of chemo. Lots and lots of bags of medication was given through me through the central line from the operation. It was the longest hospital day so far and pretty exhausting. We left home at 4:30am and returned at 7pm.

Since that day I already had a second round of chemo and target treatment. I am ok under the circumstances, but chemo definitely isn't pleasant. Loosing my hair wasn't easy and neither are the side effects, but we will get through this and make it out on the other side

Thank you so much for your support