Gabby Peeters (Germer) - Cancer Treatment Support

Those who know Gabby personally understand that she is caring, intelligent, loyal, hard-working, and selfless. She's one of those "unique and bright personalities" that has positively impacted most of our lives in some capacity. Through all of the support she's provided friends, family, co-workers, and aquantences - she never expected anything in return. Unsurprisingly, even with the news that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she and her husband Ryan researched and talked through countless financial and medical options before permitting friends to pursue fundraising efforts. This funding opportunity is a great chance to repay her support when her and her family need it the most. Here's a little more on Gabby's story:

If you don't know Gabby (33) personally, she is married to Ryan Peeters and is the mother of 2 young, beautiful daughters - Sophie and Leona. Ryan and Gabby met during college at East Stroudsburg University, currently residing in Delaware county. Both pursued careers in the health service industry to influence and improve others' mental and physical well-being.

In April 2022, Gabby found a lump on her right breast. At the time of initial discovery, it was about the size of a pea. Due to job losses and subsequent changes to a minimal coverage insurance plan, her lump wasn’t formally tested and identified as cancer until August 2022. In those few short months, her breast cancer was considered stage 1A, but the tumor had progressed to the size of a chickpea.

Due to a history of medical trauma, Gabby sought out multiple opinions from conventional medicine and alternative/integrative medicine doctors. Her extensive research identified numerous cancer centers, leading to evaluations from Philadelphia to California - the majority of which, were not covered by insurance at all. Last month, per multiple recommendations, Gabby received a right mastectomy. While healing is going well, there was an issue with the surgical removal of the tumor which continues to be evaluated.

Most recently, her tumor pathology results have revealed that her cancer is more aggressive than initially thought. Stemming from the tumor removal complications, along with the aggressive nature of the cancer, doctor's recommend she undergo chemotherapy starting sometime in December of this year. The plan is to receive a particular type of chemotherapy expected to reduce the impact on her immune system and side effects. Given the insurance issues she faces, the majority of this treatment will not be covered by her insurance plan, causing her to pay 10s of thousands of dollars out of pocket. While her husband Ryan works tirelessly to produce more income, Gabby has not been able to work full-time since surgery with her work schedule expected to reduce upon her treatment cycle. This means that it's become increasingly difficult to maintain a financial focus on her treatment cycles - while contuing to pay the mortgage, bills, car payments, outstanding debts (most of which have been accrued through just months of initial consultations and treatment plans) and provide the standard necessities to support themselves, along with their 2 girls.

Everyone knows someone affected by cancer and the unfair circumstances this disease leaves with those closest to it. I hope we can positively affect Gabby and her family while she continues to fight her battle. If friends and family can come together, we can minimize the financial burden of costly treatments and outstanding debts. By doing that, we are ensuring that Gabby and Ryan can continue to provide themselves with an ultimate focus on treatment and recovery efforts.

While fundraising alone won't cover all of her treatment expenses, I hope we can truly help Gabby and Ryan reduce their financial stress/anxiety while she continues to battle her cancer diagnosis. I want to proactively thank everyone who takes the time to read, donate, and share Gabby's story to other's. This family truly deserves the support, thoughts, and prayers along their journey.

Sincerely,

Bob Kozak