Shanna McGee Ovarian Cancer Fund

Shanna is a 44 year old Registered Nurse and Director of Nursing at Hoag Hospital. She has been the sole provider for her family since 2012 due to her husband being on disability. She was diagnosed with late stage Ovarian Cancer in 2017. While this was devastating, she has continued to be positive and brave for her family.

Being positive and brave has always been characteristics of Shanna. Before becoming a nurse, she served in the US ARMY. She served 4 years as a behavioral science specialist in a combat unit and was honorably discharged. After the military, she had two kids Austin, 21 and Payton, 18.

In 2017, Shanna had surgery to remove a large ovarian mass that had metastasized throughout her abdomen. Following the surgery, she had continuous chemo treatments, over a half dozen surgeries and multiple ovarian cancer clinical trials over the past three years.

Shanna loves working with her Hoag family and misses them while she is battling this cancer. Hoag has always been supportive to Shanna throughout her medical challenges. Over the last few years, she has been able to work on and off while on intravenous chemotherapy, showing that her true passion is being there for patients and staff.

Recently Shanna was hospitalized for 18 days due to complications from her surgery to remove cancer from her intestines and colon. This has been a rough course and cancer treatments can’t start till the infection is cleared up. Financially this has been a difficult time, due to a loss of her income, medical expenses, two children in college, and the loss of her employee funded medical insurance.

Her spirits and hopes remain high during these challenging times. All the love, prayers, and outreach from others is appreciated beyond words. I am writing this on behalf of my mother, as she is the first one to ask others if they need help and the last to ask for help for herself (typical nurse).