Help Kathy Kick Cancer!
Donation protected
CANCER SUCKS!!
I’ve said it before and I hate that I am saying it again. I don’t like to use the word hate but cancer deserves all the hate in the world! This time around it’s got its teeth in my dear friend Kathy Phillips Drysdale. Kathy has been battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma since December of 2014. She has already gone through many rounds of chemo and radiation here at Mount Nittany Medical Center and when that didn’t finish it off, she even had a stem cell transplant, spending a month in the hospital at the Penn State Cancer Institute. All of that and she still has just a tiny bit of evidence of disease that simply has not received the message TO GET THE HECK OUT! She has actually had some really good treatment results with Opdivo in a 30-minute drip once a month. If you have seen her recently – she looks good, sounds good and really does look like she is feeling good! That said, the latest PET scan results showed she still has that tiny bit of evidence of disease. Not a phrase we’re fond of either...
Throughout her battle, Kathy has been raising an amazing young man named Dereck as a single Mom. Dereck has inherited his height from his Mom, and since deceased Dad and Grandfather and alas inherited the love – and skill - of basketball as well. He is currently a 7-footer! enrolled and playing for the Westtown School in West Chester, PA. Kathy will proudly show you his latest picture (such a handsome young man) and video of him running the floor or his latest dunk! He is a good student and with all that he has watched his Mom go through he is both her reason to fight and her rock!
Kathy is a Lady Lion Legend having played Women’s Basketball at Penn State from 1988 – 1992. She is a winner and still has that athlete mentality! She works with winners and National Champions on a daily basis as a Marketing Manager for Penn State Women’s Volleyball, Wrestling and Softball programs. With that athlete mentality – from her very first day of diagnosis - she was anxious for the Game Plan for a cure. And now, 4 ½ years later that game plan includes going to Houston, Texas. Kathy has qualified for a clinical trial that will give her an infusion of her own T-cells grown in a lab and beefed up to deliver the message once and for all to this damn little bit of cancer to get the heck out!
Per their website: “CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy called adoptive cell therapy. Doctors extract T cells (a type of white blood cell) from the patient’s blood and then add an artificial receptor (called a “chimeric antigen receptor”) to their surface. The receptor functions as a type of “heat-seeking missile,” enabling the modified cells to produce chemicals that kill cancer. And once they are infused back into a patient’s body through an IV, they begin multiplying and attacking tumor cells.”
This is an amazing opportunity to play a role in a tremendous breakthrough against this dreaded disease. As you can imagine “ground-breaking” treatments come with a cost. While her insurance will pay for most of the treatment, hospital stays, bloodwork, etc. – there are so many more costs to consider. This is not a 30-day in-patient hospital stay like at Hershey or even a day trip for her Opdivo drip, bloodwork and doctors appointments that we can take a day off of work and drive her to and from. Kathy will need help covering what her insurance will not pay for: airfare, lodging, car rental, food and daily necessities all the while in a strange city with no friends or family. And then there are the “back home” expenses – for those helping to take care of Dereck and her two precious pups and also rent and utilities at her apartment. Those costs do not stop just because she is not there for a month.
Our friend needs our help and needs it now! Let’s join forces as One Team and support Kathy in the fight of her life! We are hoping to raise $10,000 for Kathy for her expenses not covered by insurance. As a proud Penn Stater, Kathy has promised to pay it forward with any funds raised that she does not need being donated to a cancer fighting charity to help others fight too!
I’ve said it before and I hate that I am saying it again. I don’t like to use the word hate but cancer deserves all the hate in the world! This time around it’s got its teeth in my dear friend Kathy Phillips Drysdale. Kathy has been battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma since December of 2014. She has already gone through many rounds of chemo and radiation here at Mount Nittany Medical Center and when that didn’t finish it off, she even had a stem cell transplant, spending a month in the hospital at the Penn State Cancer Institute. All of that and she still has just a tiny bit of evidence of disease that simply has not received the message TO GET THE HECK OUT! She has actually had some really good treatment results with Opdivo in a 30-minute drip once a month. If you have seen her recently – she looks good, sounds good and really does look like she is feeling good! That said, the latest PET scan results showed she still has that tiny bit of evidence of disease. Not a phrase we’re fond of either...
Throughout her battle, Kathy has been raising an amazing young man named Dereck as a single Mom. Dereck has inherited his height from his Mom, and since deceased Dad and Grandfather and alas inherited the love – and skill - of basketball as well. He is currently a 7-footer! enrolled and playing for the Westtown School in West Chester, PA. Kathy will proudly show you his latest picture (such a handsome young man) and video of him running the floor or his latest dunk! He is a good student and with all that he has watched his Mom go through he is both her reason to fight and her rock!
Kathy is a Lady Lion Legend having played Women’s Basketball at Penn State from 1988 – 1992. She is a winner and still has that athlete mentality! She works with winners and National Champions on a daily basis as a Marketing Manager for Penn State Women’s Volleyball, Wrestling and Softball programs. With that athlete mentality – from her very first day of diagnosis - she was anxious for the Game Plan for a cure. And now, 4 ½ years later that game plan includes going to Houston, Texas. Kathy has qualified for a clinical trial that will give her an infusion of her own T-cells grown in a lab and beefed up to deliver the message once and for all to this damn little bit of cancer to get the heck out!
Per their website: “CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy called adoptive cell therapy. Doctors extract T cells (a type of white blood cell) from the patient’s blood and then add an artificial receptor (called a “chimeric antigen receptor”) to their surface. The receptor functions as a type of “heat-seeking missile,” enabling the modified cells to produce chemicals that kill cancer. And once they are infused back into a patient’s body through an IV, they begin multiplying and attacking tumor cells.”
This is an amazing opportunity to play a role in a tremendous breakthrough against this dreaded disease. As you can imagine “ground-breaking” treatments come with a cost. While her insurance will pay for most of the treatment, hospital stays, bloodwork, etc. – there are so many more costs to consider. This is not a 30-day in-patient hospital stay like at Hershey or even a day trip for her Opdivo drip, bloodwork and doctors appointments that we can take a day off of work and drive her to and from. Kathy will need help covering what her insurance will not pay for: airfare, lodging, car rental, food and daily necessities all the while in a strange city with no friends or family. And then there are the “back home” expenses – for those helping to take care of Dereck and her two precious pups and also rent and utilities at her apartment. Those costs do not stop just because she is not there for a month.
Our friend needs our help and needs it now! Let’s join forces as One Team and support Kathy in the fight of her life! We are hoping to raise $10,000 for Kathy for her expenses not covered by insurance. As a proud Penn Stater, Kathy has promised to pay it forward with any funds raised that she does not need being donated to a cancer fighting charity to help others fight too!
Organizer and beneficiary
Jennifer James
Organizer
Lemont, PA
Kathy Drysdale
Beneficiary