Shelly's Angels Foundation Account

Hi guys!! My name is Krystal McAtee and I am the sister of the very loved Shelly Thomas.

As many of you know and for those of you that may not, on January 20th, 2016, Shelly had a few symptoms going on that sent her to the ER, where she was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor that appeared to be the size of a ping pong ball. At this point it was certain that she would have to undergo brain surgery to have it removed.  As you can imagine,
news like this changes your life in a second.

After meeting with several different nuerosurgeons Shelly was told, that from looking at the scans they don't feel like we are dealing with a cancer tumor and that surgery and a little therapy afterwards should be the extent of her battle once the tumor is removed. Immediately, after the surgery, the family spoke with the surgeon. He informed us that after he physically got into the  tumor site, they realized the tumor was actually growing very deep into her brain and was the size of a baseball. However, he was 99% confident that he was able to remove the entire tumor and that he did  not expect her to have to do any chemo/radiation treatment at all. He did mention that the tumor will be sent to the lab for testing of cancer cells and we will be given more information at the follow up visit in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, the follow up visit did not go as well as we had hoped for. The oncologist informed Shelly that after disecting and testing the tumor that it was in fact a Stage 2 Astrocytoma Cancerous tumor. They explained that this is a very agressive brain cancer that she has and that if not treated very agressively can come back quick and attack her central nervous system at a speed that will not be treatable.

They did not give Shelly any kind of "prognosis" of this disease due to the fact that every case is different. What they HAVE told us though, is that there is no cure for the type of cancer Shelly has and that "It's not a matter of IF it comes back, but it's a matter of WHEN" it comes back. So what do we do in the meantime? We treat it very aggressively with chemo and radiation and we monitor it. Every 3 months she gets a brain scan done and meets with her doctor to discuss the results and if there have been any changes that need to be addressed, he makes those adjustments as necessary.

Unfortunately, brain cancer is considered an "orphan disease" because of it's rarity and over the years treatment as really remained the same without the chance of a cure. I have learned that only 33% of brain
cancer victims live past the 5 year (post surgery) mark.  This has devastated our family. Shelly won't ever go into "remission" she won't ever be "cancer-free" but they can treat her with medications that can help to "prolong" her life. For the past 9 months Shelly has underwent proton therapy at ProCure and is continually receiving chemo treatments each month to hopefully get rid of any cancer cells that may not have been removed during the surgery. The side effects of these treatments have been extremly hard on Shelly and have caused her to resign from 3 of the 4 facility's that she was working at during the time of her diagnosis. She was working 5-6 days a week and is now down to running the nail salon at just 1 facility about 3-4 days a week. The chemo keeps her pretty sick throughout the month making it very difficult to see the number of clients she was seeing in the past. As a nail technician, she is self employed and only gets paid when she is physically at work. This has become very challenging for her and her family and of course the medical bills continue coming in and adding up.

SO, it is my mission, with this foundation, to help her to enjoy every second she has on this earth and to  make sure that her quality of life is the best that it can be. I would love to be able to raise enough money to allow Shelly to quit her job and to be able to spend her life with her two teenage girls that are her entire world and her family and loved ones. Because she deserves this. She is one of the most caring and giving persons you will ever meet. Shelly is always thinking about others and putting her needs very last. So  much that when I discussed a GoFund me account with her at the beginning of all of this she absolutely refused to allow me to create one for her. She continually told me, she "ALWAYS feels in her heart that there are others out there that need help more than she does." This has made raising funds for her very difficult to do. But finally in December it hit her that she just might need some help and she agreed to letting me develop a way that we can help her out.

To get Shelly on board with my plans I knew I was going to have to do something big. Big enough to help others. So after this realization, everything started to fall into place perfectly and this foundation was started!!

I believe that each of us has a passion deep down inside of us that can motivate us to do the impossible. Shelly's passion is helping others. It makes her feel good, it warms her heart. It is my dream that through this foundation, we can offer Shelly the opportunity to help others that are fighting this awful battle against cancer while we are raising funds to support her and her girls. I believe this will help Shelly to recover from her sickness and the side effects that she experiences everyday that she is fighting for her life.

So through each and every future event that we host, and through every future  item that we sell, Angels Among Us, Shelly's Angels, will be donating the proceeds to Shelly and will also be giving a percentage of the proceeds to a local family or cancer victim of Shelly's choice to help out through their own battle. It is our mission to be able to continually host future events that will allow us to help out as many families as possible each time.

When I informed Shelly of this foundation and the fact that she will get to pass on donations to other local families, her eyes and face lit up in a way that I havent seen in a very long time. She has already started a list of individuals and families that she wants to help out! She is very excited and believes that we can help so many others along the way!

No single person can make this possible on their own. It takes an army to win a war so I am left recruiting anybody and everybody I can to join our army!!

Your donations will go directly to help pay Shelly's medical bills, to help us to launch and successfully operate our foundation through the funding that we need to be able to purchase the inventory that we will use to raise funds, the upfront expenses that we are incurring to book and facilitate the fund raising events that we have planned for the upcoming months and will also allow Shelly to take the time off work that she needs to be able to stay home and rest as needed throughout her battle. I am currently working on our foundation website where we will have an online store, upcoming event information and more details about our foundation. We are expecting to have our 501c3 number soon, so that will allow all donations received to be tax deductible to our donors. This information will be shared as soon as our website is complete.

If you believe in our foundation and if you would like to be one of Shelly's Angels we would very much appreciate any help and support that you can offer! As a family, we will never be able to put into words how grateful we are to have your love and support along this journey. You all are Shelly's Angels!