Leah's Hope: Healing and Financial Relief Needed

I’m creating this fundraiser to help my friend, Leah Fulchino, who is undergoing radical chemotherapy for her AAA-breast cancer.

As you know from her first GoFundMe, Leah was diagnosed with the BRCA gene that she inherited from her mother, Joanne, who sadly passed away from a repeat cancer diagnosis after bravely fighting breast cancer when she was only a 16-year-old teenager.

After testing positive for the same gene that took her mother's life, Leah also developed breast cancer as a result of her genetically predisposed BRCA gene.

She had a radical mastectomy last year and has been undergoing intensive, invasive chemotherapy for the last several months.

As a result of her diagnosis and treatment, she has been out of work and unable to care for herself due to major complications and life-threatening side effects of the intensive chemo treatment, and has been unable to return to work.

Her FMLA and work-related disability benefits have expired after 20 weeks due to the unprecedented amounts of side effects and complications of the chemo, which has made her extend her treatment plan past her treatment expiration date.

She has been without any income for weeks and is struggling financially to provide basic necessities for herself, pay her monthly expenses of rent, food, and utilities, or maintain her monthly living expenses.

Leah lives in her own apartment after living in shared housing after her cancer diagnosis so she could endure treatment privately. She also has no family. Both her parents are deceased, and she is unable to even get out of bed on most days due to the complications and horrendous side effects of her invasive cancer treatment.

As a result of her weekly treatments, she has dropped down to only 90 pounds and is so weak and vulnerable to all infections. Her body’s immune system is completely shattered.

If that isn’t bad enough, she was recently scammed out of $3,000 from a fraudulent scamming phone call from Venmo, telling her if she wanted to reactivate her account, she would need to transfer all her money from her bank into her Venmo account. Her entire Venmo account was phished and washed clean of all funds she had left over from her FMLA disability and the remainder of her funds from her first GoFundMe, leaving her with no money left in her bank account.

Her bank informed her it could take upwards of 45-90 days to recoup these funds, leaving her in a dangerous financial situation that could jeopardize her living situation as she will now be without any funds to even cover her rent, utilities, or phone. She does not have any housing assistance, disability assistance, or governmental assistance, and cancer organizations have been of no help. I have exhausted all attempts to help her get any financial help on her behalf, and I’m creating this GoFundMe to show her there is still goodness in the world that has been so hard on her.

It is beyond heartbreaking to see my friend struggle so bravely and strongly in the face of such an unspeakable health scare.

Leah is a loving and devoted mother of two small children, Tessa and Cameron, who are literally her lifeline, and they are the motivating force for her to complete her treatment and get back healthy for them.

She is one of the most loving, generous, and kindest souls in the world. I’ve been there for her throughout this entire journey of cancer and chemo, and she is one of my very best friends in life. I want to be able to help her, and I’m creating this GoFundMe in the hopes that anyone who sees it will be able to help in any capacity.

Please help me do this by considering donating to this very necessary GoFundMe so she can concentrate more on her chemo treatment and less on how she is going to make it financially day to day.

Any donation, large or small, will help alleviate the unnecessary stress and burdens of financial setbacks when she is already facing so many life-threatening health scares and complications due to this disease called breast cancer that is attacking her body and the treatment that is keeping her from being able to care for herself and her basic needs.

Thank you and God bless anyone who will contribute.

We love Leah. You fight like a girl