Joy Derise Medical Expense Fundraiser

If you know Joy you know she is the embodiment of her name meaning delight or great happiness, which derives from Old French "joie."

Maybe you've experienced her gift of massage therapy at Special Touch Massage. Perhaps you were a classmate of hers at St. Louis, McNeese State University or the La. Institute of Massage Therapy. Or maybe you share a pew with her and her husband, Jason, at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Ragley, Louisiana.

Joy has used her gift as a massage therapist to heal and help so many since 1994. And now she needs healing and help herself. Joy is the first person to volunteer to help others and the last to ask for help. Her friends are starting this Go Fund Me to help with medical expenses that insurance will not cover. Costs are estimated to reach $20,000.

Joy currently has a 9+ cm mass in her breast that continues to grow. Insurance will only cover treatment with antibiotics, steroids and chemotherapy. Surgeons agree that that is NOT an acceptable treatment. She is undergoing a bilateral mastectomy with tissue transfer on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

Her and husband Jason are now facing large self pay medical costs for treatment. We want to offset those bills and give back to the person we all know gives us JOY.

Please consider any gift, large or small, anything and everything helps.