Angela's Army - support for Angela Kelter

Dear friends, family, colleagues and caring individuals,

We are reaching out to you today to rally support for Angela Kelter and her family – Angela has been diagnosed with a terminal illness of Malignant Melanoma that has metastasized throughout her body (lungs, liver, adrenal, lymph nodes, spine, bones and brain) for which there is no cure! Angela and her husband Tim are unable to work, with Tim providing daily care for her while their 17-year-old son Tyson is reeling with the news. Having recently lost their daughter Carolyn at age 17 to childhood cancer, they are back in the throws of a battle, this time for Angela’s life!

There have been significant advancements in recent years for the treatment of Metastatic Malignant Melanoma with immunotherapy and other targeted treatments. The family is hopeful these treatments will help control the disease and give Angela, Tim and Tyson as much quality time together as possible.

“Angela, my friend and colleague has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. As someone whose family has also been impacted by the randomness and severity of this disease – this has had a profound impact on me, and I am trying to help – let’s rally together as a community to make a positive impact contributing to this campaign and sending prayers and positivity, we can help Angela shift her focus from financial worries to focusing all her energy in fighting her illness.” Anil Datoo

“Funds raised will allow Angela, Tim and Tyson to remain in their family home for a longer period of time without the burden of financial worries, and will cover living and medical expenses. Our hope is that Tim and Tyson can focus on what’s important, being present and caring for Angela.” Karen Olson

Following are some words from Angela….

We are broken hearted to learn that cancer has struck our family again in such an aggressive and unforgiving way. In August of this year, we never would have guessed I was sick. I was paddle boarding, fishing, swimming in the ocean, and walking all the time to currently being required to get around with a walker and having lost a significant amount of weight and strength.

As mentioned, there has been rapid advancement in the treatment of Metastatic Malignant Melanoma with new immunotherapy, promising many patients a potential to survive previous odds with some living up to 8 to 10 more years!! The survival timelines are in direct correlation to extensiveness of the disease and depends on time to treatment and to speed of initial response if patient is to respond. I do have all the markers that match and could expect some positive response which gives us some hope! Unfortunately, however, I have had some complications that are delaying my treatment ☹

• I started my first round of immunotherapy September 18 and was hospitalized shortly after with uncontrollable fevers daily reaching 40.7 degrees, depleting my body and requiring steroids to counteract the response. Steroids and antibiotics reduce the effectiveness of the immunotherapy. This breaks our heart as we have to taper off steroids, and unless my oncologist has a new update this week - this has delayed my treatment by 6 crucial weeks!!! Precious time I do not have to wait for further therapy.

• Further to this, the combination of Advil to fight fevers, the depletion of my body and reaction to immunotherapy put my kidneys at 10% function and on verge of kidney failure. We were preparing for emergency port and dialysis, when we had a promising turn of finally some bright news!! Right before surgery started my bloodwork showed my kidneys made a break toward recovery on their own! And they are continuing to improve regularly! Avoiding dialysis is a blessing for us and we are grateful!!!

• Perhaps the bright side of those fevers, was to wake up my immune system to target the cancer as the fevers were so aggressive... we hope this means it went to war immediately on the cancer!!!!!

• Back to reality, I have tumors in my brain that cannot sustain the treatment delay and is a risk to my wellbeing. It would have been nice to let immunotherapy perhaps address the brain tumors but unfortunately, this week I will start brain radiation. I am currently asymptomatic to these tumors and the goal is to remain that way! I think, of all things, the brain tumors scare me the most.

It breaks my heart to see the agony that Tim and Tyson are going through again after having lost our daughter Carolyn. Now they both have to have one more piece of our family leaving them at some point. We need this army's love and support in many ways!!!!

• Prayers go a long way and we need all that we can get - perhaps we can have a miracle that gives me more time!

• Supporting us with this go fund me. This is solely to help ease us with financial support for living/ medical expenses as we are unable to work. We will be selling off much of our household items to prepare for the eventual sale of our home but we are hoping we will not have to rush a move from our family home while taking on the fight for my life.

I AM A FIGHTER AND WILL NOT GO DOWN EASY! IT MAY BE MONTHS BUT I HOPE AND ENVISION IT IS YEARS BEFORE MY TIME COMES TO JOIN CAROLYN IN WATCHING OVER OUR FAMILY!

Our deepest gratitude for your prayers and any support you can provide! We will be sure to provide you updates on GoFundMe so you can follow along in this battle as part of Angela’s Army!