Help Megan and Her Family

My name is Joy Smith, and I'm writing this on behalf of one of the most amazing people I've ever met.

Megan Mell has been my best friend for the past year and a half, but she’s been fighting cancer for over twice that long. 5 years ago, while she was nursing her fourth child, Levi, she noticed a lump on her breast. She had it examined, and that’s when she was first diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Despite removal of the affected breast and a 6-month remission, the cancer showed back up with a tumor in her esophagus, moving the diagnosis from stage 3 to stage 4 breast cancer.

When we met, she was in a brief remission, and she was the most vibrant, charismatic, and energetic person I had ever met. It was a quick connection—I usually am cautious about beginning friendships, but with her it came with ease. We both have four children full of spunk and character, we both enjoy DIYing, we both like to help people and so we got into helping each other Be the Best Moms We Can Be. Amidst regular chemotherapy, she was so full of life and energy, more energetic than myself by far, and helped me keep up while I finished college.

After a variety of different treatments to try to beat the cancer, signing up for a new cancer drug trial that ended up exasperating the tumor growth, and some scares that led her to the ER, she was told that there were no more options. Her tumors were growing at an exponential rate, and despite her existent and strong spirit her vim and vigor had begun to diminish. A couple of months ago, the doctors gave her a 6-month prognosis. S

This morning I woke up to a missed call from her husband Andrew—Megan had woken up from a coughing fit from the tumors on her lungs, and she was taken to the hospital in the early hours of the morning. When I got there, she was already intubated and sedated, and there’s doubts to if she’ll wake up again. I left two hours ago, having been told that it was pneumonia and it was going to take a couple of days for the antibiotics to kick in to find out anything further.

Megan is 32. She celebrated her birthday less than two weeks ago, and while her insurance has taken care of her through treatment, she does not have life insurance—who thinks of these things in your twenties? Her family—Andrew her husband, Lyla (11), Freya (7), Alice (6), and Levi (4), are all grieving her already, and will be bereft without her.

I am writing this to ask for assistance for Megan’s family through their loss. It’s the main thing she has been concerned about as the cancer began to take over: that her family would be able to continue on, that no opportunity would be denied to them, that the loose ends she would leave would be able to be tied and not left to unravel. In my efforts to help her achieve her goals, we talked about GoFundMe as an option, so here we are. Your donation will help their family to afford a proper funeral and help them pay for their home, giving them time to grieve and focus on healing the scar that will inevitably be left on them.

These are the best kind of people—lively, loving, thoughtful, spunky, artistic, funny—and they would be so grateful for your help. Please share.

Update 4/9: Megan is still under sedation, and her condition is worsening. They had thought it might have been pneumonia, but now the doctors believe it’s her cancer progressing to constrict her breathing more than before. It’s unlikely that she will be taken off of sedation, because she needs the tubes to make her lungs work. Andrew is so grateful for the donations, to be able to sit with her. Despite sedation, she is aware, and she is much calmer with him present. Thank you all so much, and please keep sharing.