Anne Gale's Breast Cancer Expenses Fundraiser

Hi, I'm Kathleen, Anne's daughter. I created this fundraiser to support my mom through her cancer treatment. My hope is that this fundraiser will not only raise the funds she needs for her medical bills, but also show her the warmth and care of her community. If you know Mom, she's not one to ask for help - she's always the one helping. She is also very private. Yet, with her cancer diagnosis, she and I are finding ourselves in uncharted territory. She has given me permission to reach out to her village, talk about her diagnosis and upcoming treatment plan, along with asking for your support.

Mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 Inflammatory Breast Cancer in early October. From the moment of diagnosis, her doctors have moved swiftly to put an aggressive treatment plan into place to ensure she is able to beat this horrible disease. Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is extremely rare and according to her doctors, it’s only found in 1% of breast cancer patients. (We always knew she was special). With this much more aggressive and fast moving diagnosis, our treatment plan has grown bigger than we ever expected. As of now treatment will be six rounds of chemotherapy, double mastectomy, radiation, followed by potential reconstruction surgery. This whole plan will be over a year long process. Each chemotherapy treatment alone will be $60,000-$80,000 without insurance. While she does now have medical insurance, we learned that our out-of-pocket expenses are way more than we can afford. Again, for those of you who know Mom, you know that she's very careful financially and a strict budgeter. I'd like for her to not have to worry about the expense of her treatment so that she can focus all her strength on fighting her cancer.

The funds will be used to support the out-of-pocket costs associated with her cancer treatment. We anticipate needing to meet two annual deductibles within 3 months.

Fundraising isn't exactly my expertise. But, I know my mom's village is very strong and we could really use your support. Please help me raise these funds for her. Donate if and what you can and please also reach out to your community - friends, family, colleagues, social media platforms - to help us meet the out-of-pocket treatment cost. There are other ways to support her besides financially, please reach out to me if you can support in other ways!

With love and appreciation,

Kathleen Gale