Simone’s healing from cancer fund
Donation protected
(View Simone’s blog)
Rest is a four letter word. It is a word that is uttered encouragingly by friends, family, and strangers, unknowing just how much its definition changes for a person living with cancer.
Rest means incomplete tasks and unpaid bills. Rest means unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls. Rest means laundry and dishes and cooking that doesn’t get done. Rest means hours not worked, and paychecks that get slimmer and slimmer as the weeks and months go by.
In 2017, Simone was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer, an aggressive form of cancer with a high rate of recurrence and mortality. At the time of diagnosis, her tumor was growing at a rate of 89%. Doctors prescribed a treatment plan that includes chemotherapy, surgery, AND radiation (a year long triathlon, as she calls it), which she has responded to very well. She is currently receiving cancer treatment.
Ever the optimist and realist, Simone’s smile seems ever present, yet she admits that this year and life season has been hard.
While she is working hard at beating cancer (the fight is not over yet), as a result of chemotherapy joint pain and neuropathy have affected her hands, legs, and feet, causing a combination of numbness, pain, and decreased dexterity. Her skin has severe burns from radiation that require attention several times a day. Because of side effects and long days in treatment, Simone had to cut down to part time work with no paid days off and had to stop her work as a consultant. She’s tired often, and yields to the four letter word she’s come to dislike, rest, so that her body and mind can heal.
Living with cancer comes at a high price. Simone’s personal emergency fund has long ago run dry. The financial and physical realities of fighting cancer are taking their toll.
Monies raised will go towards her medical expenses, prescriptions, meeting basic needs (such as food, rent, transportation), holistic care, and respite.
They will also go towards things for the new normal, such as DragonSpeak speech recognition software, help with household chores, and Dinner Elf meal service.
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Breast cancer also takes a huge emotional and mental toll. Therapy, meditation, and creative outlets are a few of the ways Simone is using to begin to heal from the trauma of living with cancer for the past year.
She was invited to attend Renaissance House in Martha Vineyard, an artist’s retreat space organized by Abigail McGrath, daughter and niece of Harlem Renaissance legendaries Helene Johnson and Dorothy West. (Simone is a Renaissance House alumni.) It a place where artists are encouraged sit and stare out the window to let the thoughts come before entering into their creative work.
Lodging and air/ground travel expenses to Martha’s Vineyard to spend a week or two at Renaissance House are out of reach this summer, without your help.
—
Thank you for your support, not just for fighting cancer, but in support of Simone’s full healing.
To follow her story or for other ways to give including offline donations see her blog, all God’s Grace and Love, Just No Carrots.
*Photo taken at the Survive and Thrive symposium held by Texas Oncology. Simone (pictured with conference speakers) closed out the event leading Laughter Yoga with a ballroom filled with hundreds of cancer survivors, medical professional, and caregivers, the day after she received chemo.
Rest is a four letter word. It is a word that is uttered encouragingly by friends, family, and strangers, unknowing just how much its definition changes for a person living with cancer.
Rest means incomplete tasks and unpaid bills. Rest means unanswered emails, unreturned phone calls. Rest means laundry and dishes and cooking that doesn’t get done. Rest means hours not worked, and paychecks that get slimmer and slimmer as the weeks and months go by.
In 2017, Simone was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer, an aggressive form of cancer with a high rate of recurrence and mortality. At the time of diagnosis, her tumor was growing at a rate of 89%. Doctors prescribed a treatment plan that includes chemotherapy, surgery, AND radiation (a year long triathlon, as she calls it), which she has responded to very well. She is currently receiving cancer treatment.
Ever the optimist and realist, Simone’s smile seems ever present, yet she admits that this year and life season has been hard.
While she is working hard at beating cancer (the fight is not over yet), as a result of chemotherapy joint pain and neuropathy have affected her hands, legs, and feet, causing a combination of numbness, pain, and decreased dexterity. Her skin has severe burns from radiation that require attention several times a day. Because of side effects and long days in treatment, Simone had to cut down to part time work with no paid days off and had to stop her work as a consultant. She’s tired often, and yields to the four letter word she’s come to dislike, rest, so that her body and mind can heal.
Living with cancer comes at a high price. Simone’s personal emergency fund has long ago run dry. The financial and physical realities of fighting cancer are taking their toll.
Monies raised will go towards her medical expenses, prescriptions, meeting basic needs (such as food, rent, transportation), holistic care, and respite.
They will also go towards things for the new normal, such as DragonSpeak speech recognition software, help with household chores, and Dinner Elf meal service.
--
Breast cancer also takes a huge emotional and mental toll. Therapy, meditation, and creative outlets are a few of the ways Simone is using to begin to heal from the trauma of living with cancer for the past year.
She was invited to attend Renaissance House in Martha Vineyard, an artist’s retreat space organized by Abigail McGrath, daughter and niece of Harlem Renaissance legendaries Helene Johnson and Dorothy West. (Simone is a Renaissance House alumni.) It a place where artists are encouraged sit and stare out the window to let the thoughts come before entering into their creative work.
Lodging and air/ground travel expenses to Martha’s Vineyard to spend a week or two at Renaissance House are out of reach this summer, without your help.
—
Thank you for your support, not just for fighting cancer, but in support of Simone’s full healing.
To follow her story or for other ways to give including offline donations see her blog, all God’s Grace and Love, Just No Carrots.
*Photo taken at the Survive and Thrive symposium held by Texas Oncology. Simone (pictured with conference speakers) closed out the event leading Laughter Yoga with a ballroom filled with hundreds of cancer survivors, medical professional, and caregivers, the day after she received chemo.Organizer
Simone Monique Barnes
Organizer
Austin, TX
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