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Team Tanya Cancer SUCKS!

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Hello, my name is Stephanie and with a heavy heart my family and I are unfortunately in the process of planning arrangements for my beautiful older sister Tanya. As some of you might know when my sister was five, she nearly drowned and suffers from severe brain damage, which left her unable to walk, talk or eat by mouth. This however never dimmed her beautiful smile nor laugh. This did however leave my mother with the responsibility of not only learning how to navigate this new life for Tanya but for us as a family, this becoming our new normal. Throughout these years my mother has not done this alone but with the help of immediate family staying side by side in everyday physical care from bathing her to learning how to give medicine and feed her through her G-Tube. Now 31 years later we're gratified to say my sister has NEVER been hospitalized up until a few months ago when our family noticed some unfamiliar changes with Tanya.

August 18th, 2023 was the day my sister was officially admitted to the hospital. Doctors found she had pneumonia along with fluid around her lungs, around her abdominal cavity and a few blood clots that led us to the finding the unbelievable... a mass the size of a grapefruit on her liver: all a domino effect from this horrible cancer! A couple days after being admitted, doctors decided to do a biopsy to further test and find out exactly what the mass was. After a suspenseful weekend she was unfortunately diagnosed with stage 4 Cholangiocarcinoma. The doctor informed us this type of cancer she has is a very aggressive form of cancer. Of course, this came as a shock to our family seeing as though the thought of our loved one having cancer never crossed our minds. Because of Tanya's condition, she would not be strong enough for chemotherapy, would not be able to survive such an invasive surgery, and she would be unable to let us or the doctors know how she was feeling or if anything was working which would make these options impossible. After much discussion we have decided to put our beloved Tanya on hospice and continue to not only care for her here at home with us but keep her as comfortable as possible until her time with God is to come.

Thursday September 7th is when Tanya's hospice nurse told us Tanya is starting her transitioning process which devastated us even more. That same day we started planning out and making arrangements for how we would be sending Tanya off in the most beautiful and peaceful way possible and would appreciate all the prayers for a peaceful transition.

The money raised for my sister will go directly towards any funeral arrangements and also to assist my mother with any financial hardships during this difficult time.
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Donations 

  • Paul Neill
    • $100
    • 1 yr
  • Marcos Toro
    • $50
    • 1 yr
  • Peter Kaczmarczyk
    • $50
    • 1 yr
  • Michael Acker
    • $50
    • 1 yr
  • Seamus Naughton
    • $250
    • 1 yr
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Organizer

Stephanie Tookey
Organizer
Chicago, IL

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