Support Melissa's Battle Against Pancreatic Cancer

Hello, my name is Drew and I am fundraising for my dear friend, Melissa Jensen-Katz.

Recently, Melissa began to complain of abdominal pain. Studies were ordered and she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This is one of the most lethal types of cancers in the world with the highest mortality rate among all cancers. As you can imagine, this diagnosis has been devastating to Melissa, her family, and her friends who love her. Despite the discouraging statistics and long odds, Melissa is determined to fight and beat this illness and I hope that we can help. The cancerous mass in the pancreas is large, and it is currently not amenable to surgery. As a result, she will need to undergo a three month course of aggressive chemotherapy with the hope that the tumor will shrink enough to make surgery possible. If after three months, an adequate response has not been achieved, she is looking at another three months of chemotherapy before they will consider operating. The surgery itself will also be challenging as the location of the cancer is in a difficult position. All of this will require the expertise that can only be found at a major academic center. As a result, Melissa has opted to get care at UCLA Medical Center where she has been enrolled in a clinical trial for her chemotherapy under the direction of Dr. Zev Wainberg and will entrust Dr. Timothy Donahue to operate on this mass. We are hopeful that this will give her the best chance of survival.

Getting ongoing care at UCLA presents further challenges as it will require her to go from Las Vegas to the West Los Angeles area every other week for 4-5 days at a time. She is determined to continue to work full-time in order to provide financial support for her family (all under one roof are Melissa's loving husband, Randy, 93 year old mother, Marilyn, and 84 year old mother-in-law, Bette) and ensure that she is able to maintain her health insurance coverage and any needed disability benefits. But not only that, she remains selfless and wants to remain in her role as the Chief Operating Officer at Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, having been one of the founders of this medical practice and one who has truly poured everything into this organization in order to improve the lives of so many people in Las Vegas. I have known Melissa for nearly 15 years and she is one of the most capable persons I have ever met. Yes, she can do it all. She always finds the time to get the job done, take care of her family and still have time to go over and beyond to help everyone else around her. I have seen her bounce right back after multiple other surgeries because she knew so many people were counting on her. But fighting this cancer is going to be tough. The toll that the chemo and surgery will take on her body is expected to be enormous, even for Melissa. It has been heart-wrenching to hear Melissa and Randy talk about how they are budgeting out for the next 6 months to 9 months to a year and beyond, trying to take into account every possible scenario of treatment response, means of managing travel/lodging/healthcare costs, keeping up with the rent on their home, finding help for Melissa's mother and mother-in-law while they are away, and wondering if continuing to work will even be possible at all. The scenarios and possibilities to consider are endless and overwhelming. What a wonderful gift it would be to help take away this additional burden and stress in their lives.

I hope that we can come together and use the power of crowdsourcing to really make a difference in a genuinely good person's life. As you know, with our combined resources, any small amount will help make a huge difference. And as you give, or even if you are unable to give, please keep Melissa in your thoughts and prayers. As Melissa has said to me, she needs as much positive energy as possible to beat this and I am certain she would be grateful if you could pass any of that positivity her way. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for your kind consideration.