Help Marie Take Down Cancer!

Hi, I'm Dara and I'm setting up this fundraiser (along with a bunch of other amazing people) on behalf of Marie, aka Ree, aka one of the best humans I know.

Ree has been tenaciously battling back her stage 4 melanoma diagnosis for several years now, adhering to her strict immunotherapy protocol and significantly shrinking the tumors that have decided to invade her (brain, lungs, kidneys...). Though new tumors had been appearing, overall she had been doing well, with immunotherapy shrinking the existing tumors in a way that her doctors felt was acceptable.

In the past several weeks, however, she's been feeling less well, and as of today (12/21/23) she found out that she has an extremely large (new) brain tumor that requires brain surgery as well as starting on radiation.

Through all of this, Ree and Jay so rarely ask for anything. But folks who live in the US or who know how medical "care" works here, understand the financial toll it takes on people. With the turn of the year coming up, Ree and her family will be hit again by their medical deductible, along with all of the other costs associated with care and life and existing while trying to deal with something of this magnitude.

If you know Ree, you know she's the kind of person who would do anything for anyone. I've known her since I was a little kid running around the OG Otakon LARP room in the BCC when she, Jason, and a few of my other lifelong friends "adopted" me as their con family. She's stuck up for me when I didn't even know I needed it (and I didn't even know about it until... a decade later?), literally taken me into her home as an adult when I needed somewhere to be, fed me, clothed me, taught me how to be a sassy-as-hell adult who also respects other folks and commands respect herself, while still being unwaveringly true to who she is.

I'm *sure* that so many of you all have similar stories about how she's your family (found or otherwise), so if you're able to spare anything at this time of year, I know she and Jason would be incredibly blessed to have even a little of this weight off of their shoulders.