Fight with Michele
Donation protected
Michele is a warrior.
She's built a career building women up. She's traveled the country campaigning for women's rights. She's brought joy and life and enrichment to every person who has ever had the pleasure of knowing her.
And Michele had a brain tumor. A golf ball sized brain tumor imbedded in her brain. (and, then, later, another one a year later which was also recently removed - all in totally three brain surgeries.)
And she needs your help.
The story actually goes back about two years or so when Michele starting being less, well, Michele like. She lost drive in her business and in her personal life. She lost her mojo. The lack of income made her effectively homeless and she relied on the generosity of friends and family to keep a roof over her head.
Morethan a year ago, she started giving up. Depression made her question her choices in life but her spirit drove her to keep searching for a solution. The friends who see her most often day in and day out started pushing her to seek medical attention, knowing that this was not the Michele they knew best.
And in July of 2017 her symptoms began to manifest physically and a CT scan revealed that the "demon" within her was not a blight on her spirit, but a physical thing in her brain, effecting her emotions, her drive, and her physical mobility.
On July 6th Michele went in for brain surgery. It was then that doctors discovered that the tumor was larger and more imbedded than originally thought. They took a biopsy to learn the type of tumor and what will need to be done to shrink it over time so it would be easier to remove. It turns out we don't have time. The tumor, which only days ago without a complete diagnosis was too big to be removed right away, is too scary to wait any longer.
Michele has been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, and will be heading into surgery Friday July 14th morning to remove this mass from her brain.
Michele has an amazing team of conventional doctors, holistic practitioners and friends holding space and working for her complete recovery. We are looking at all avenues available to bring her back to wholeness.
That being said...this stuff is pricey, and Michele does not need to be concerned about money. Michele needs to focus on healing and recovery. Anything you can do, be it a donation or simply spreading the word for our cause, is appreciate by more people and in more ways that you can ever possibly know.
Michele faces a long road ahead. She went into the first surgery with the possibility for the loss of up to 25% of motor control on the left side of her body and she came out with 100% loss of motor control on the left side of her body. She's been diligently attending physical therapy to regain any motor skills lost, and has after a year of struggle progessed to being able to walk a bit with a cane. She will need to attack any fragments left of this cancer aggresively and possibly forever, as the likelihood of it's return is exceptionally high - it has already returned once, in January of 2018, when another successful surgery was performed.
She has been accepted into a clinical trial after this last surgery, and our hopes for this are high.
She will need more than thoughts and prayers to make it through all of this - she needs money.
Eventually, with hope, she will need some place to hang her hat and a little capital, perhaps, to restart her once thriving business - so anything you can give toward any part of her future would be amazing!
Michele has spent her entire life so far giving to others. To all of us, whether we're directly affected by her or not. This is our time to give back.
Please click to read the most recent updates, which often are directly from Michele!
She's built a career building women up. She's traveled the country campaigning for women's rights. She's brought joy and life and enrichment to every person who has ever had the pleasure of knowing her.
And Michele had a brain tumor. A golf ball sized brain tumor imbedded in her brain. (and, then, later, another one a year later which was also recently removed - all in totally three brain surgeries.)
And she needs your help.
The story actually goes back about two years or so when Michele starting being less, well, Michele like. She lost drive in her business and in her personal life. She lost her mojo. The lack of income made her effectively homeless and she relied on the generosity of friends and family to keep a roof over her head.
Morethan a year ago, she started giving up. Depression made her question her choices in life but her spirit drove her to keep searching for a solution. The friends who see her most often day in and day out started pushing her to seek medical attention, knowing that this was not the Michele they knew best.
And in July of 2017 her symptoms began to manifest physically and a CT scan revealed that the "demon" within her was not a blight on her spirit, but a physical thing in her brain, effecting her emotions, her drive, and her physical mobility.
On July 6th Michele went in for brain surgery. It was then that doctors discovered that the tumor was larger and more imbedded than originally thought. They took a biopsy to learn the type of tumor and what will need to be done to shrink it over time so it would be easier to remove. It turns out we don't have time. The tumor, which only days ago without a complete diagnosis was too big to be removed right away, is too scary to wait any longer.
Michele has been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, and will be heading into surgery Friday July 14th morning to remove this mass from her brain.
Michele has an amazing team of conventional doctors, holistic practitioners and friends holding space and working for her complete recovery. We are looking at all avenues available to bring her back to wholeness.
That being said...this stuff is pricey, and Michele does not need to be concerned about money. Michele needs to focus on healing and recovery. Anything you can do, be it a donation or simply spreading the word for our cause, is appreciate by more people and in more ways that you can ever possibly know.
Michele faces a long road ahead. She went into the first surgery with the possibility for the loss of up to 25% of motor control on the left side of her body and she came out with 100% loss of motor control on the left side of her body. She's been diligently attending physical therapy to regain any motor skills lost, and has after a year of struggle progessed to being able to walk a bit with a cane. She will need to attack any fragments left of this cancer aggresively and possibly forever, as the likelihood of it's return is exceptionally high - it has already returned once, in January of 2018, when another successful surgery was performed.
She has been accepted into a clinical trial after this last surgery, and our hopes for this are high.
She will need more than thoughts and prayers to make it through all of this - she needs money.
Eventually, with hope, she will need some place to hang her hat and a little capital, perhaps, to restart her once thriving business - so anything you can give toward any part of her future would be amazing!
Michele has spent her entire life so far giving to others. To all of us, whether we're directly affected by her or not. This is our time to give back.
Please click to read the most recent updates, which often are directly from Michele!
Organizer and beneficiary
Dawn Elizabeth
Organizer
Marlborough, MA
Michele McGrew
Beneficiary
