Nat's Fight Against Breast Cancer

In August 2017, while breastfeeding her 6 month old son, my sister in-law Natalie noticed a lump on her breast. She asked her doctor about it, who told her it was likely a plugged milk duct and nothing to worry about. 4 months later, when the lump had gotten noticeably larger, she went back to the doctor who ordered a mammogram the same day. After an additional ultrasound and biopsy, Natalie was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on January 2nd at 30 years old. 

Because the cancer is estrogen receptor positive, and it's likely the chemotherapy will cause infertility, Natalie and my brother Ben had to quickly make the decision to do an egg retrieval and freeze the embryos if they wanted any hope of having another child. This procedure is not covered by any insurance, and including IVF medications cost upwards of $15,000 dollars. This is on top of $8000  dollars in deductibles and copays for surgeries and chemo. 

On February 9th, Natalie had a mastectomy to remove her five centimeter mass, as well as two lymph nodes from her arm pit. One week later she got the results back that the invasive cancer had spread to one of her lymph nodes. Now in addition to 16 sessions of chemotherapy she also has to undergo 6 weeks of daily radiation.  

So far, Natalie has successfully gone through 8 sessions of chemotherapy. Though it has had terribly negative effects on her physically, Natalie has been a fighter, and has strived to stay as positive and bright as her healthy self, even when her 1 year is running circles around her. 

With so many things to worry about and focus on, the last thing we want is for Ben and Natalie to be overwhelmed with the countless medical expenses that have added up and continue to add up, so we are setting up this fund in the hopes that we can rally around them and ease some of the burden they are facing. Anything you can contribute will help immensely, and if you can't please share with your friends and family to help us reach this goal.