Help Tracy Kick Cancer to the Curb!

Hi, our names are Jim and Gail and we are fundraising for Tracy and Charlie Walesa. Charlie and Tracy met in 2014 at Goshen Middle School while teaching and coaching boys and girls track. They married in 2018.

Six months later Tracy was diagnosed with breast cancer. In April 2019 during a second opinion, they were told it was inflammatory metastatic breast cancer (stage IV) one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of breast cancer. Less than 5% of people diagnosed with some form of breast cancer a year have this type. Her own doctors had never seen it before.

Because of the aggressiveness of this cancer, she began chemotherapy treatments right away. After chemo, she had 6 weeks (5 days/week) of radiation, and a double mastectomy. She finished treatments around Thanksgiving of that year.

In February 2020 the cancer had spread to her ovaries. They traveled to Boston to see a specialist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute which resulted in an ovariectomy (summer of 2020) and no option of ever having children.

In September of 2021 they learned the cancer had spread to the bones, uterus, and the lining of the lungs. They are seeing a specialist at the University of Chicago. Tracy is on a new round of chemotherapy and working on pain management.

Both Charlie and Tracy are teachers at Goshen High School. They live in Goshen with their three dogs. Tracy continues to teach, despite continual pain and complications. Because of only being able to afford health insurance with a very high deductible, the Walesa’s continue to struggle to pay medical bills to meet their $20,000 deductible.