Emma Berndt's Cancer Battle and Future Plan

Hi, my name is Kelly. Please let me start by saying that this is something I never imagined having to do for someone that I love, but when the time came, I couldn't imagine not doing it.

 

In case you don't know me, I met Melanie and Cory in massage school, which part way through they had Emma. Still to this day, I feel like she was born to us all. Where do I even start to describe this fun-loving person I want to call a kid, but who has actually grown into such an amazing young woman. Emma moved out to Nelson B.C. from Arnprior last year with her family. Upon settling there and getting a job, she moved out on her own with her boyfriend Kody, marking what I think is the beginning of an amazing chapter of her young adult life. She was looking into attending university and preparing to further her education. Emma has always wanted a family with lots of children and she was setting the stage for her future, ripe with infinite possibilities.

 

Then the unthinkable happened. This brings us to why I am creating this page....

 

In August, Emma battled with illness. This prompted her to seek help in the emergency department of her local hospital. After a few tests, they found fluid around her heart along with an 11cm mass above her heart and lung, which would subsequently be identified as malignant.........This 19 year-old, beautiful, young woman has cancer. Her world is off kilter, her dreams are on hold, and the shock is starting to settle in.

 

As her friends, family friends, family.......have our tears, our gulps, our OMG's........and now we are asking you to join together and help this beautiful young woman.

 

At the point I write this, our beautiful sweet Emma has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins fast growing primary mediastinal b-cell lymphoma. She was in Kelowna this week to confirm that diagnosis, and the team there has a treatment plan in place pending a few more results from upcoming procedures. There have been tons of appointments; blood work, scans, biopsies, etc. She started her chemo yesterday and as you can imagine, this means Emma is unable to work. Facing the possibility of not being able to have children in her future unless she freezes her eggs, she is now faced with the costly venture of preserving her fertility through expensive treatments. Her dream is not impossible, but it is very difficult and very costly. Emma will have consultations, and is hoping to have procedures at a fertility clinic to help ensure that her dream of having a child will still be possible when she beats this cancers' a**. As you can appreciate, financial costs are adding up.......Mel and Cory have taken time off work to support her, care for her, and spend time with their family. Traveling to appointments will be their reality and just how many or how invasive those appointments will be, are yet to be known. Not being able to work, battling cancer, and struggling to preserve her fertility is costly, and I hope not impossible with our help.

 

This family has touched so many lives……most of you know Mel, and know that Mel would drop everything for anyone to help. Cory has gone above and beyond as well, whether it being as a massage therapist giving so many patients a new lease on life, or as a volunteer firefighter. It’s our turn now to give back to the Berndt family and to Emma.

 

So here is the part where I ask, to dig big or dig small, or just dig whatever you can manage to help Emma's journey to be filled with as little stress as possible. Lets help her with some or all financial burden to be able to fight cancer and secure her dream of having children in her future. Lets help her, so she can focus on surviving this cancer and securing the life she has always wanted.