#CANCERWARRIORCHELSIE "Cancer No More in 2024!"

The Story

While attending the Toronto Film School in the fall of 2019, Chelsie Coombs was referred to a Periodontist for minor gum surgery. She had an incidental discovery of what seemed to be a lingering swollen tastebud. She was told she was being referred to an oral surgeon to have it removed, but the referral was lost unbeknownst to Chelsie and her family. After various inquiries on the appointment status by Chelsie's family, it was determined the referral was lost due to a clerical error.

With the worsening condition of her speech and ability to swallow, she finally met with an Oral Surgeon on July 21, 2022. The Oral surgeon initially described her tongue lump as now looking "Angry." They immediately took pictures, measured the mass and performed a biopsy. Less than one week later, the day after her 30th BIRTHDAY, Chelsie was diagnosed with CANCER!

Chelsie had to travel over 4000kms to Edmonton for a specialized robotic sirgery TORS in October, 2022. The only surgery available in her province of Newfoundland was a surgery in which her mandible (jaw bones) would be totally split apart and then put back together with plates, pins and screws. This surgery would have left her face and mouth permanently deformed.

Chelsie has lost half her tongue and  reconstruction of her tongue using muscle, nerves and blood vessels from her forearm, which was then grafted with skin from her thigh. She had a full neck dissection, cut from ear to ear to remove over 200 lymph nodes. Her recovery  required a tracheostomy and feeding tube and a 7 to 14 day hospital stay turned into 5 wks on a ventilator.  Chelsie recovered well from the surgery, began eating and speaking with some degree of speech impairment.

She was made return back to Newfoundland for 33 radiation and 2 chemotherapy treatments which started November 2022 and ende January 2023. She became quite ill with difficulty eating and drinking, weight loss and kidney function affected. She required hospitalization in March and a feeding tube. Ctscan shows metastases lungs and clinical trial discussed and immunotherapy started April. Mid june another ctscan and oncologist says for us to find a clinical trial and make plans to go.

The catch is although a clinical trial offers medications not yet available through regular treatments or combinations of drugs not approved for treatment of specific cancers that could treat your cancer, cure your cancer and hopefully save your life but it is considered  an uninsured medical service. This means no insurance or no government plan will cover this treatment. No travel, no accomodation , no living expenses and no medical is covered. The clinical trial only covers anything pertaining to the trial. If you need any other tests, hospitalization, medication outside of it, they do not cover anything.

These trials are 2 or 3 years long depending on your reaction to the medications. Uprooting from Canada to the U.S. is going to be extremely costly and we have no choice but to try and make this happen. Our daughter's life is definitely worth it.

We need any and all help we can get to get her into this trial at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut!

Chelsie has no income as she is a recent graduate of Toronto Film School. She lives at home with her parents, who are providing her care and support. Her father is a psychiatric Licensed practical nurse and is taking  time off work. He has already taken quite a bit of time off since her diagnosis for medical appointments,hospital stays, including trips out of province. Her mother has a disability and has no income.

About Chelsie

Chelsie resides in Paradise, Newfoundland, Canada, with her brother Kurtis (AKA - Twitch Partner, Ravage) and parents plus her three teacup poodles, Lucie, Gizmo and Beaker (her comfort dogs), which mean the world to her and are always by her side and she recently had an addition of Faith, the most beautiful red apricot toy poodle being trained as a #servicedog. They are frequently featured on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Just ONE day after her 30th birthday, she was confronted with this horrible cancer diagnosis.

Chelsie is a recent graduate of Toronto Film School as a scriptwriter, fulfilling her dream. In her short career, she has already completed a short film, was chosen to do the narrative writing for a capstone videogame and has many other scripts written and in the works. Chelsie wears her heart on her sleeve and has always been there for friends in their time of need, selflessly putting their needs before hers.

Chelsie, like her brother Kurtis, has been gaming since she was young, starting on old systems with her Mom. She regularly streams and loves art and old movies. Chelsie also loves music and uses it to deal with her neuropathic pain, which has been a major part of her coping strategies since 2010. Singing is a significant component of that, and she still fears that with this diagnosis and surgery, she is also in jeopardy of losing her singing voice but slowly is regaining confidence to sing again to her favorite artists like #taylorswift, #mileycyrus, #britneyspears and many more!

Defying the Odds

She is one of the strongest and bravest individuals you could ever meet. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time she's had to defy the odds. She was diagnosed with chronic neuropathic pain syndrome in 2010. Through her endurance and strong will, coupled with her fantastic work ethic, she went from helplessly screaming in bed with pain, unable to move to a wheelchair, a walker, and eventually to walking on her own.

She defied the odds and amazed doctors with her resilience and determination to be independent. She graduated on the President's List when she was finally well enough to pursue her dream of attending the Toronto Film School. She worked her way from a helpless health situation, where many health professionals thought she'd never be able to work or walk again, to the President's List in a prestigious school. We're confident with what we've seen her conquer; she will be able to beat this too.

Why this CLINICAL TRIAL is so Important

This diagnosis and surgery were so dire to Chelsie because her ability to communicate as a scriptwriter in the film world is paramount, and she needs to be able to vocally market and pitch her ideas effectively. Fortunately, she has been able to communicate quite well and is constantly working to improve her speech and swallowing. Now she is fighting to live to tell the world about her #cancer journey in a #documentary that she plans to film to educate other young people  on this type of cancer.

This Clinical Trial at Yale in New Haven? Connecticut is the last chance, our last resort at saving Chelsie's life! 

Chelsie is only 30 YEARS OLD! MONEY should not and can not stand in the way of keeping her from dying! If you can help, please do so! If you can not help financially please play to Archbishop Fulton Sheen for a miracle of healing for Chelsie. We would love to get her to the healing waters of Lourdes in France but getting her to this clinical trial immediately is what needs to be done! There is no time to waste. Time is against us! This aggressive cancer is a ticking time bomb!

Conclusion

We appreciate any donations, prayers or well wishes to see Chelsie once again HEALTHY and HAPPY scriptwriting in the near future. THANK YOU, and GOD BLESS from the Coombs Family!

Any excess funds (over donations) will be donated to Hope Air which assisted Chelsie and my father in reaching the original consult in Edmonton, Alberta. Find out more about Hope Air here.