Christine Starkey Cancer Relief

Hi, my name is Lauren, and I am fundraising for Christine Starkey.

Christine is 36 years old. She is an actress, a runner, and my best friend. Sadly, she is also fighting breast cancer.

Christine was diagnosed in April 2016 with breast cancer. She has the BRCA2 mutant gene. Her cancer is hormone positive.

In 2016 she went through 24 weeks of hardcore chemotherapy, followed by a double mastectomy with lymph node removal in her right arm, with radiation treatment after healing from surgery. She was on a 10-year plan to take the pill Tamoxifen daily, which blocks the effects of estrogen on hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cells by sitting in the estrogen receptors on the cells. However, after six years of no evidence of disease, she started to experience shortness of breath doing ordinary, nonstrenuous activities, and experienced pain in her chest and back.

Christine went back to her doctors. She was diagnosed with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer in November 2022. Her original cancer has spread to her liver, lymph nodes, lungs and is primarily in a few bones in her spine.

She is on a new treatment plan, which includes taking two Lynparza tablets in the morning and in the evening to treat her cancer, getting a 3.6-milligram syringe of Zoladex injected into her stomach every four weeks to keep her in “double menopause,” and getting infusions of Zometa every three months to treat the cancer that has spread to her bones. Since her initial diagnosis in November, She has had more cancer develop in her liver and spinal cord.

As a result of her treatments and the side effects from the “double menopause” caused by said treatments, Christine has not worked since January 2023.

The past 7 months since her diagnosis have challenged Christine’s mental/physical health, changing things far more significantly since her 2016 diagnosis. Her current situation is “treatable”, not “cure-able”. Her life expectancy is 5 years, give or take. She is still processing what is essentially a death sentence and, as a result, is struggling personally, emotionally, physically and financially.

I can’t help with most of what she is going through, but I started this GoFundMe so she can worry a little less about one thing—money. Christine is looking into options such as Social Security Disability, but that could take time.

The funds raised from this GoFundMe will be put towards helping Christine’s every day bills—gas for her car, groceries, necessities—as well as a little spending money for anything that might make what little time she has left on this earth a little more enjoyable.

Whether you know the colorful, creative, strong, eccentric, and beautiful person that is Christine Starkey or not, any support you can give her would mean the world to me, and help relieve the stress of some of the difficulties she is currently facing.