Rhonda Lester
Donation protected
Most of us know Rhonda Lester to be a sweet, soft spoken co-worker, doting wife, dedicated mother and fierce friend. As a Pinnacle award honoree in 2016, it is clear that those of us who work beside her hold her in highest esteem because of all that she does for our patients through her unwavering commitment to excellence as our ultrasound technologist. Not a workday passes where our team does not get a phone call asking "Is Rhonda here today?" or "When will she return?" Her work ethic is stellar. She stays well past her shift daily and gives everything she has to her patients, routinely going above and beyond the call of duty in order to aid in their diagnosis and management.
Behind every smile, all of us experience pain, and we have a story behind it. Lately, Rhonda's story has been a series of stresses and struggles. After going through a recent, heartbreaking divorce, she took on the task of finding a new home for herself and her 3 children, Kaitlyn, Dylan and Kyle. After soldiering past the events leading up to her divorce, she wanted to give her family a fresh start as they begin a positive new chapter in the life of their family. She found the perfect home for them, complete with a big, southern front porch!
While moving into her home, however, Rhonda noticed a lump in her left breast. Never wanting to miss a day of work, she decided to scan it herself. She knew the findings were suspicious, and with the help of our radiologists, she immediately was able to be scheduled the following day for an appointment to have a diagnostic mammographic work up and a biopsy. The imaging confirmed a 3.2 cm tumor, but without suspicious axillary lymph nodes; however, the tumor itself was a malignant invasive ductal carcinoma. In mid June she had her tumor removed from her breast with a lumpectomy and also a sentinal node biopsy. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with a stage 2 estrogen/progesterone receptor positive breast cancer, with microscopic lymph node involvement. Oncology has done more testing on the tumor itself, which has shown that her particular tumor has a high risk of recurrence. She is now preparing to undergo 5 months of chemotherapy, followed by 4-6 weeks of radiation therapy, which begins on 8/8/2018. Prior to her treatments, she is awaiting additional scans to complete her metastatic work up, and a port placement. Thankfully, despite the long road ahead, with the addition of chemo, her risk of recurrence drops from 30% to 5%! Her fight is one of hope!
Needless to say, Rhonda and her family are going through a very difficult season. She faces numerous challenges during her fight - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Cancer is more than most of us can imagine, when we watch our young patients endure their journey. Brave Rhonda adds to this the layers of life as a single mother with 3 children, healing from a divorce, having just moved into a new home, with an adult autistic son and a daughter who recently graduated from high school and holds hopes of attending college in her future. This is Rhonda's story...at least the chapter that she is writing at the moment. She needs our help in a big way! Not only can we provide emotional support, through our prayers and encouraging words, but we hope we can count on all of you to consider a donation of financial support, including PTO hours, if you are an Atrium employee. No donation is too small. Together we can help take off of Rhonda. the financial stress inherent to having to take leave from work while the medical bills and other home and family expenses she faces during her treatment and beyond continue to mount.
We are asking all of you to consider giving generously to a woman whose very essence personifies generosity. We have a chance to finally give back in a meaningful way to our dear colleague, employee, and friend, who has never once ever asked us for anything. Let's show her she is not in this fight alone! Grateful to all of you for your willingness to rally around Rhonda with every facet of support we have, we are,
Yours Sincerely,
Joni Middleton, R.T.R
Adrienne Bean, M.D.
~ Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. -1 Peter: 3:8 ~
Behind every smile, all of us experience pain, and we have a story behind it. Lately, Rhonda's story has been a series of stresses and struggles. After going through a recent, heartbreaking divorce, she took on the task of finding a new home for herself and her 3 children, Kaitlyn, Dylan and Kyle. After soldiering past the events leading up to her divorce, she wanted to give her family a fresh start as they begin a positive new chapter in the life of their family. She found the perfect home for them, complete with a big, southern front porch!
While moving into her home, however, Rhonda noticed a lump in her left breast. Never wanting to miss a day of work, she decided to scan it herself. She knew the findings were suspicious, and with the help of our radiologists, she immediately was able to be scheduled the following day for an appointment to have a diagnostic mammographic work up and a biopsy. The imaging confirmed a 3.2 cm tumor, but without suspicious axillary lymph nodes; however, the tumor itself was a malignant invasive ductal carcinoma. In mid June she had her tumor removed from her breast with a lumpectomy and also a sentinal node biopsy. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with a stage 2 estrogen/progesterone receptor positive breast cancer, with microscopic lymph node involvement. Oncology has done more testing on the tumor itself, which has shown that her particular tumor has a high risk of recurrence. She is now preparing to undergo 5 months of chemotherapy, followed by 4-6 weeks of radiation therapy, which begins on 8/8/2018. Prior to her treatments, she is awaiting additional scans to complete her metastatic work up, and a port placement. Thankfully, despite the long road ahead, with the addition of chemo, her risk of recurrence drops from 30% to 5%! Her fight is one of hope!
Needless to say, Rhonda and her family are going through a very difficult season. She faces numerous challenges during her fight - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Cancer is more than most of us can imagine, when we watch our young patients endure their journey. Brave Rhonda adds to this the layers of life as a single mother with 3 children, healing from a divorce, having just moved into a new home, with an adult autistic son and a daughter who recently graduated from high school and holds hopes of attending college in her future. This is Rhonda's story...at least the chapter that she is writing at the moment. She needs our help in a big way! Not only can we provide emotional support, through our prayers and encouraging words, but we hope we can count on all of you to consider a donation of financial support, including PTO hours, if you are an Atrium employee. No donation is too small. Together we can help take off of Rhonda. the financial stress inherent to having to take leave from work while the medical bills and other home and family expenses she faces during her treatment and beyond continue to mount.
We are asking all of you to consider giving generously to a woman whose very essence personifies generosity. We have a chance to finally give back in a meaningful way to our dear colleague, employee, and friend, who has never once ever asked us for anything. Let's show her she is not in this fight alone! Grateful to all of you for your willingness to rally around Rhonda with every facet of support we have, we are,
Yours Sincerely,
Joni Middleton, R.T.R
Adrienne Bean, M.D.
~ Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. -1 Peter: 3:8 ~
Organizer and beneficiary
Adrienne Bean
Organizer
Charlotte, NC
Rhonda Lester
Beneficiary