Financial Help While Surviving Cancer

Nicole Waite is organizing this fundraiser.

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Starting a new chapter in life, and then cancer happened . . .

Greetings family, friends, fellow cancer patients, and anyone with an empathetic and generous heart, my name is Nicole. In April 2021, I began a new job, a much better paralegal position than the one I had left. I was starting a new chapter in my life, and then cancer happened. I was diagnosed with Stage IV Rectal Cancer (CRC) in September 2021, and as of this writing, I have not yet been told that the cancer is in remission or that I am cancer-free. As I await the day when my oncologist utters one of those phrases to me and look forward to the day when I can resume earning a living, I have come to the realization that I need monetary help.

A cancer diagnosis sends your thoughts in every direction at once. How did I get cancer? Will I die? What are the treatment options? Will insurance cover all my medical costs? How will I pay my monthly bills and unexpected costs? I was fortunate to begin receiving monthly disability payments shortly after my final pay was deposited into my account. I also applied for and received modest grants from cancer organizations and enrolled in hospitals’ charity care programs to offset medical expenses. And of course, my wonderful family and friends gifted me with money and groceries when they were able. So, for a little over a year, I was able to keep up with financial obligations, through three cancer related surgeries, through radiation and two rounds of chemotherapy, through hypernatremia, through nausea and loss of appetite, through weight loss, through Hand-foot syndrome (palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia), and through the peripheral neuropathy that causes me to suffer severe numbness, swelling and pain in my extremities.

Cancer and the many side-effects caused by treatment, continue to reign over my life, so much so that I was recently awarded social security disability and deemed unable to return to work. However, the SSD payments that are to replace the employer-insurance based long-term disability payments that I had been receiving since November 2021, have not yet begun. While it is great news that after receiving two denials I was approved, the payments will be over $650 less than the disability payments that I was receiving. Moreover, I am not eligible for additional assistance – SSI, Medicaid, or SNAP, and will not be eligible for Medicare until April 2024 (though I hope to be able to resume working way before that time). In the meantime, June 2023 marks the first time in this cancer journey that I am not sure how I will cover all of my expenses for the month or during the months that follow, especially my two highest bills – rent and the nearly $1200 monthly COBRA health insurance payment (or utilities, or groceries, or accruing medical bills, or unexpected incidentals).

By God’s grace, and with a great deal of prayers and support from family and friends, I have progressed well physically – at least, according to my oncology team (though my quality of life remains thwarted by this disease and the adverse effects of treatment). However, since I am not well enough to reclaim the healthy and financially independent life I had before cancer, I humbly ask for your help. Any donation, big or small, is greatly appreciated while I remain unable to work. Thank you in advance for your gift, and may you be blessed for your generosity.

"The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart."

~Nikolai Lenin

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