Help Cover her Final Expenses

Hello! We are Justin & Heather Benz, and we’re writing this for our mom, Teresa, who needs all the thoughts, prayers, and support that we can possibly give. She has given the shirt off of her back for those around her for decades, and we’re hoping that we can do the same for her, now.

She is a loving wife to her husband of over 40 years, Larry, and a proud grandmother to her two granddaughters, Aria and Scarlett, and soon-to-be-grandson, Luke.

Our family has always been the pull yourself up by the bootstraps type, figuring out a way to get through whatever was in front of us. Asking for help “isn’t our thing” but, this time it was different. In a three-month period, we went from a five-year plan of the entire family centrally locating to build a new home for her to have a place to be around her grandbabies as much as possible. To now figuring out how we are going to afford to keep her in the home she has known for the last 30 years.

Since July of 2023, our mom has been back and forth in the medical system for stomach issues. She had every available test run, but no one saw anything. She even had her gallbladder removed, but nothing relieved her pain and symptoms. Finally, after being listened to about her symptoms, she was scheduled for an emergency CT scan where they found a mass larger than a golf ball in her small intestine. She was immediately scheduled for surgery on April 19th, 2024, a day our lives would take a drastic turn.

She was diagnosed with Stage IV abdominal cancer with 2 types of cancer: adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine in the small bowel and peritoneum. She is getting ready to begin her treatment plan (she will require chemotherapy for the remainder of her life- every 3 months- and it is nearly $12,000 per round) and she will no longer be able to work, and will lose her health insurance very soon. Like many who have walked this path, life has gained a new perspective but also comes with an uphill battle to afford what gives her the best opportunity to fight. Our goal is for her to live the rest of her life not worrying about how she will pay for her treatment of any other financial burdens.

We are asking for your generosity, thoughts, suggestions, and prayers, so that we can do everything we can to make sure that our mom can wake up every day and fight like hell! Good Lord willing, we plan to fight this so she can be around as long as he allows for those that bring her great joy, including her three grandkids, Aria, Scarlett, and Luke.