Support for Alyssa Dantes
Donation protected
The Purpose
In women under 50, only 17% of breast cancers are expected to be diagnosed and 13% of the cases are in women between the ages of 40-49. Only 4-5% of diagnoses are predicted to occur in women under the age of 40, even less in women under 30.
With statistics like that in mind, no one would ever expect to find out that they have breast cancer at the age of 23.
In spite of everything that she has gone through and lost during her cancer battle, she is incredibly thankful for the kindness of strangers, as well as family and friends. She is a hardworking young woman who believes in earning the things you want or need for yourself, as she had done all her life, but she has gained perspective that people want to and are willing to help if they are given the opportunity. The intention of this page is to support Alyssa and her family because every bit of help really does make a difference.
The one thing that many would not realize is that a cancer diagnosis comes with many unexpected costs – extra drugs that are not covered, paying for parking for the many appointments or emergency visits to the hospital, not being able to save for school since you physically cannot work, the trips back and forth to the fertility clinic, food, and extra household costs. The list is endless. The expenses take their toll not only on the patient but also on the patient’s family.
As she is out of school, she is no longer covered by her parent’s health benefits and does not have any private health insurance of her own. She does qualify for OHIP+ for adults under 25 years old, but does require certain medications that are not covered by that plan.
To help get the word out, you can share this page to your social media!
Her Journey
At the beginning of this year, Alyssa had noticed a lump in her left breast that had begun to quickly increase in size and she noticed it began to cause her unusual pain, prompting her to get checked at the local hospital in Kingston on February 6th. She hoped it would be a cyst or something – anything – else that would be relatively simple to treat. She had an ultrasound, which revealed that the mass in her breast was not fluid filled. She was quickly scheduled for a core biopsy (her mass was so solid, it bent the biopsy needle during the second sample) and just a few days later, she was informed of the results. On February 14th, 2019, Alyssa received a diagnosis that would change her life as she knew it. She was diagnosed with Stage 2-3, grade 2, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. The tumour in her breast measured about 6x7 centimetres in diameter. Her cancer is estrogen and progesterone positive. Within the first few weeks of receiving her diagnosis, she had a mammogram, CT scan, a breast MRI, and a heart echo. She could not receive a bone scan due to an allergy to the contrast. According to her all her scan results, she only had a tumour in her left breast. She is still awaiting her genetics results to find out if she has any genetics that make her more susceptible to cancers.
One of the hardest parts of her cancer journey occurred at the very start. Due to the size of her tumour, her medical and surgical oncologist recommended that she begin her treatment with chemotherapy. The plan is the treat her cancer quite aggressively with the intention of being curative. Chemotherapy is the first step, surgery, and then radiation. Before she could begin treatment, she preserved her fertility, as chemotherapy can cause one to become infertile. This was very difficult news to process and accept at her age, but she wanted to do what she could in order to preserve her fertility for her future. She was given from February 22nd to March 15th to harvest any eggs, as it was imperative to begin chemo treatments relatively after that timeline.
She traveled to the fertility clinic in Ottawa and began hormone injections in order to produce eggs to freeze. The process was very painful, as her cancer is hormone receptive and the extra hormones caused her intense tumour pain. Even more devastating, she had to restart the hormone injection process because although she had many follicles, only two were mature enough to be harvested and the fertility doctor did not feel that these two would produce enough eggs for retrieval. So she had restarted the process, feeling pressured to make her March 15th chemo date. On March 8th, she travelled back to Ottawa for what she thought was to pick up more injections only to be informed that she unexpectedly had mature follicles… But her blood work showed oddly high levels of progesterone. The doctors were unsure if that meant she possibly had no eggs in her follicles. She was given the choice to either proceed with the harvest, to cancel the entire endeavour, or to restart the process again, which would have taken another four weeks that she did not have. She decided to proceed with the harvest, knowing that it may result in nothing. In just four days, she was blessed enough to able to get five eggs (out of 9 retrieved), with only four being viable to use in the future. The harvest took place on March 11th and she began chemo on March 15th.
With her cancer diagnosis, she is unable to work, as she is unfortunately quite ill during her chemo treatments. She struggled quite heavily with her first chemo regimen because it made her extremely nauseous, even with all the anti-nausea medications, and she had intense bone pain due to her immunity booster injections. She also struggled with her many allergies to adhesives and preservatives, which are found in both cosmetics, injectable, and oral medications, which has only added to the difficulty of her treatment. None of these allergies had ever presented as an issue because before cancer, she was very healthy and had never been treated at a hospital for any illnesses. She was highly allergic to her first chemo drugs, and thus needed special medications to combat the allergy. She was truly too sick to even get out of bed most days for two months. Now on her final chemo regimen, she is not nauseous but she is experiencing a lot of joint pain, which is a known side effect. She is almost done her chemo treatments with only two more rounds left and is looking forward to ringing the chemo bell on June 21st and moving on to surgery.
Her Backstory
Before her diagnosis, Alyssa was working as a server. She recently graduated from the Bachelor of Fine Art program from Queen’s University. She was accepted into the Consecutive Education program at Queen’s for May 2019 and was working during her time off school in order to support herself for the upcoming school year. Because of her diagnosis, she has deferred school until May 2020.
The battle has been tough, but Alyssa is fighting through it with as much bravery as a 23-year-old woman can with a rare breast cancer diagnosis.
A Message to Donors
If you have read about her journey and have decided to contribute, thank you.
We hope this page can also create awareness. Cancer does not discriminate. Please routinely examine yourself and listen to your body and instinct if you know or feel that something is not right. Please bring up any concerns to your doctor right away and advocate for your health.
If you would like to keep up with her journey, follow her instagram page @makingthebreastofit
In women under 50, only 17% of breast cancers are expected to be diagnosed and 13% of the cases are in women between the ages of 40-49. Only 4-5% of diagnoses are predicted to occur in women under the age of 40, even less in women under 30.
With statistics like that in mind, no one would ever expect to find out that they have breast cancer at the age of 23.
In spite of everything that she has gone through and lost during her cancer battle, she is incredibly thankful for the kindness of strangers, as well as family and friends. She is a hardworking young woman who believes in earning the things you want or need for yourself, as she had done all her life, but she has gained perspective that people want to and are willing to help if they are given the opportunity. The intention of this page is to support Alyssa and her family because every bit of help really does make a difference.
The one thing that many would not realize is that a cancer diagnosis comes with many unexpected costs – extra drugs that are not covered, paying for parking for the many appointments or emergency visits to the hospital, not being able to save for school since you physically cannot work, the trips back and forth to the fertility clinic, food, and extra household costs. The list is endless. The expenses take their toll not only on the patient but also on the patient’s family.
As she is out of school, she is no longer covered by her parent’s health benefits and does not have any private health insurance of her own. She does qualify for OHIP+ for adults under 25 years old, but does require certain medications that are not covered by that plan.
To help get the word out, you can share this page to your social media!
Her Journey
At the beginning of this year, Alyssa had noticed a lump in her left breast that had begun to quickly increase in size and she noticed it began to cause her unusual pain, prompting her to get checked at the local hospital in Kingston on February 6th. She hoped it would be a cyst or something – anything – else that would be relatively simple to treat. She had an ultrasound, which revealed that the mass in her breast was not fluid filled. She was quickly scheduled for a core biopsy (her mass was so solid, it bent the biopsy needle during the second sample) and just a few days later, she was informed of the results. On February 14th, 2019, Alyssa received a diagnosis that would change her life as she knew it. She was diagnosed with Stage 2-3, grade 2, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. The tumour in her breast measured about 6x7 centimetres in diameter. Her cancer is estrogen and progesterone positive. Within the first few weeks of receiving her diagnosis, she had a mammogram, CT scan, a breast MRI, and a heart echo. She could not receive a bone scan due to an allergy to the contrast. According to her all her scan results, she only had a tumour in her left breast. She is still awaiting her genetics results to find out if she has any genetics that make her more susceptible to cancers.
One of the hardest parts of her cancer journey occurred at the very start. Due to the size of her tumour, her medical and surgical oncologist recommended that she begin her treatment with chemotherapy. The plan is the treat her cancer quite aggressively with the intention of being curative. Chemotherapy is the first step, surgery, and then radiation. Before she could begin treatment, she preserved her fertility, as chemotherapy can cause one to become infertile. This was very difficult news to process and accept at her age, but she wanted to do what she could in order to preserve her fertility for her future. She was given from February 22nd to March 15th to harvest any eggs, as it was imperative to begin chemo treatments relatively after that timeline.
She traveled to the fertility clinic in Ottawa and began hormone injections in order to produce eggs to freeze. The process was very painful, as her cancer is hormone receptive and the extra hormones caused her intense tumour pain. Even more devastating, she had to restart the hormone injection process because although she had many follicles, only two were mature enough to be harvested and the fertility doctor did not feel that these two would produce enough eggs for retrieval. So she had restarted the process, feeling pressured to make her March 15th chemo date. On March 8th, she travelled back to Ottawa for what she thought was to pick up more injections only to be informed that she unexpectedly had mature follicles… But her blood work showed oddly high levels of progesterone. The doctors were unsure if that meant she possibly had no eggs in her follicles. She was given the choice to either proceed with the harvest, to cancel the entire endeavour, or to restart the process again, which would have taken another four weeks that she did not have. She decided to proceed with the harvest, knowing that it may result in nothing. In just four days, she was blessed enough to able to get five eggs (out of 9 retrieved), with only four being viable to use in the future. The harvest took place on March 11th and she began chemo on March 15th.
With her cancer diagnosis, she is unable to work, as she is unfortunately quite ill during her chemo treatments. She struggled quite heavily with her first chemo regimen because it made her extremely nauseous, even with all the anti-nausea medications, and she had intense bone pain due to her immunity booster injections. She also struggled with her many allergies to adhesives and preservatives, which are found in both cosmetics, injectable, and oral medications, which has only added to the difficulty of her treatment. None of these allergies had ever presented as an issue because before cancer, she was very healthy and had never been treated at a hospital for any illnesses. She was highly allergic to her first chemo drugs, and thus needed special medications to combat the allergy. She was truly too sick to even get out of bed most days for two months. Now on her final chemo regimen, she is not nauseous but she is experiencing a lot of joint pain, which is a known side effect. She is almost done her chemo treatments with only two more rounds left and is looking forward to ringing the chemo bell on June 21st and moving on to surgery.
Her Backstory
Before her diagnosis, Alyssa was working as a server. She recently graduated from the Bachelor of Fine Art program from Queen’s University. She was accepted into the Consecutive Education program at Queen’s for May 2019 and was working during her time off school in order to support herself for the upcoming school year. Because of her diagnosis, she has deferred school until May 2020.
The battle has been tough, but Alyssa is fighting through it with as much bravery as a 23-year-old woman can with a rare breast cancer diagnosis.
A Message to Donors
If you have read about her journey and have decided to contribute, thank you.
We hope this page can also create awareness. Cancer does not discriminate. Please routinely examine yourself and listen to your body and instinct if you know or feel that something is not right. Please bring up any concerns to your doctor right away and advocate for your health.
If you would like to keep up with her journey, follow her instagram page @makingthebreastofit
Organizer and beneficiary
Alysa Shaw
Organizer
Kingston, ON
Alyssa Dantes
Beneficiary
