Natalia's cancer surgery and treatment fund

Hi our names are Callie and Courtney Schade, and we are creating this go fund me to support our best friend, Natalia (Menert) Smith, as she journeys through her second metastatic thyroid cancer recurrence. To explain what her upcoming treatment will be, we wanted to start from the beginning. Natalia was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2012 after graduating nursing school in Greeley. She had a thyroidectomy, followed by a radiation therapy. She continued with the recommended scans to make sure her cancer didn't come back. In 2018, she moved to Washington for a job opportunity after graduating as a nurse practitioner.

Unfortunately, she was found to have her first cancer recurrence in a lymph node in her neck in 2019 and had surgery. She was also found to have spots on her lungs that were not able to be biopsied. She moved back to Colorado to help care for her terminally ill aunt. After her aunt passed away this year, it made Natalia realize that she needed to work at a job that would allow her to spend more time with family. After putting in her notice at work, her cancer scans that had been stable for years showed another thyroid cancer recurrence in multiple lymph nodes in her neck which will require extensive surgery that is to be done in the next month in Florida by 2 surgeons who specialize in complex neck cancer patients.

The neck surgery will involve removing all of her lymph nodes (from the top of her collar bone to the bottom of her jaw) from at least the left and middle parts of her neck, but will also likely involve the right side as well. Due to her transitioning between jobs, she will be losing her medical insurance partway through this process, and the surgery alone will cost over $6,000. This does not include the surgeon and anesthesiologist fees, imaging cost, pathology fees, hospital stay, travel there and back, and the required hotel stay near the hospital.

Please consider donating to help with all of these expenses until she is able to heal enough to start a new job. Any bit counts and, if you're unable to contribute, please consider sending prayers and well wishes, as all would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to share so that we can get as much support as possible. Natalia has made a career caring for others and now it's our time to care for her.

As many of you know Natalia also dropped everything to come help care for me for my second open heart surgery as well. She has never had a fundraiser and helps and gives to all. Please help if you can!

Included are some photos from the first 2 surgeries.