Cancer Picked the Wrong OvarAchiever-Help Lennea!

This past St. Patrick’s Day our dear friend Lennea (aka Peg VanDizzle, aka Dizz, Pink, Nelly, Rah, Nea-Nea,. ..you get the point) left the Emergency Room with a Cancer diagnosis after being sent home the previous day with “just a UTI.”  Two weeks later, hopeful that the Cancer was contained, she went into surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC.  In good spirits, she assumed she was undergoing laparoscopic surgery to remove a 14mm tumor.

Unfortunately, the Cancer had spread to multiple organs. Beyond the initial tumor, the surgeon also needed to perform an impromptu complete gross resection and radical debulking (Google it. That's a LOT of body parts).

Lennea left the hospital a week later, on her 38th birthday, having been diagnosed with Stage 3C clear cell carcinoma - Ovarian Cancer.

Anyone who has ever met Lennea knows that she is incredibly hardworking, loyal to those around her, sefless towards those she works with and for, and goes above and beyond for friends...and strangers.  She’s always got your back.  She’ll make you belly laugh until you can't breathe. . . and, being the giving human she is, she always puts others before herself. It is a real struggle for her to ask for help from others, that is is why this fundraiser has been started.

After dedicating nearly two decades to working at a non-profit assisting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Lennea has had to step away from her passion to focus of fighting for her life.  She is over two-thirds of the way through an extremely aggressive 18-week chemotherapy regimen that does not permit her to work.  

In addition to the chemotherapy leaving her with a compromised immune system, the fact that she had her spleen removed puts her at an increased risk of serious infection. While Lennea is compensated by work leave, her current income doesn’t scratch the surface of her medical needs.

Knowing the terrifying statistics of Ovarian Cancer, Lennea is doing everything in her power to come out on top.  She has made getting well and self-care a full time job, partnering conventional treatments with a plethora of other evidence-based care.

We are raising money to alleviate some of the stress of living and travel costs, medical bills, and supplemental care while she is in the fight for her life.  

She is currently kicking ass, but she needs our help! Being fiercely independent, private, and humble, Lennea has been hesitant to go public, but as her journey progresses, coupled with her friends repeated confirmations, she understands that it is ok to accept help from others.

As her friends and loved ones, we humbly ask that you give what you can to help the most amazing and incredible superwoman fight, win, and continue her journey of helping others.

Beyond monetary donations, Lennea hopes that these fundraising efforts can also act as a platform for sharing cancer-related stories and struggles.  No one should ever be in this alone, and even while she fights, it is extremely important to her to be a resource to others.  Lennea hopes that others will freely reach out to her with any questions, stories, or shared experiences.  

So, let’s help our girl beat this so she can get back to doing what she does best: putting her heart and soul into helping others.


With immense gratitude,

All the kids in Lennea’s corner (it’s a big corner)