Tracy's Relief Fund

Dear Everyone,

My name is Matthew Leistra, and I’m writing to you on behalf of my partner, Tracy Akers. She is a cancer survivor and amputee; a former walk-on, division I basketball player at the University of Richmond; a poet, writer, and philosopher; and a creative director and visual artist.

Battling a bone disease since she was 15 years old, Tracy underwent eight surgeries prior to the amputation of her leg, including four to reconstruct her left tibia, which was plagued by recurring tumors. During a reconstruction in December 2015, her doctor discovered that the disease metastasized into osteosarcoma. Tracy dropped out of school immediately during her senior year at UR to begin chemotherapy for bone cancer. She was forced to pause her stand-out literary career on campus when she dropped out, as she was the lead writer of the student magazine, the first student writer for the alumni magazine, the copy editor of the student newspaper, the fiction editor of the student literary magazine, and the winner of the literary magazine’s poetry award.

The chemotherapy began to threaten her life after three months of treatment at the beginning of 2016, and Tracy underwent an above-the-knee amputation in March 2016. Following six more months of chemotherapy and recovery, she returned to school and completed her final semester at UR in the Spring of 2017, graduating with honors and a double major in English and Leadership Studies and a minor in Creative Writing. Post-college, she continued her athletic and artistic pursuits by rock climbing, dancing, painting, writing books of poetry and philosophy, and starring in and directing photography shoots and short films inspired by her writings.

Fascinated by fairytales, the natural world, and spirituality from a young age, Tracy’s art employs these motifs to express her experience, wisdom, and pain. Her works challenge an ableist world’s understanding of ability, pain, and choice. Tracy’s productions are grim fairytales that are imbued with her history and the lessons she’s gleaned from facing death time and time again. Tracy understands the world in a way that can often seem counterintuitive at first, but upon further inspection is truer than most all prevailing knowledge on the subject.

Although Tracy aspires to self-publish her books of poetry and philosophy as well as direct her films, currently, she is only trying to survive and heal her body. She suffered two car accidents in 2019 and 2020, a broken neck resulting in spinal surgery in May 2020, a sports medicine surgery on her one remaining knee in 2022 (she’s been unable to walk but rarely since then) and has received diagnoses for several auto-immune and chronic diseases since the start of 2022. Currently, she can't do daily tasks on her own, let alone write, produce film or photography, or perform. Tracy needs immediate financial intervention if she wants a chance to survive, be independent, and eventually create her art.

Her most pressing needs are funds for specialized food and medications to treat Eosinophilic Esophagitis, an auto-immune disease that could rupture her esophagus, acupuncture and other treatments to recover her vagus nerve, and multiple physical therapies: myofunctional or mouth therapy to prepare her to have a tongue-tie surgically removed and aid her sleep apnea, cranial sacral therapy to address complications from her neck injury and the tongue-tie, pelvic floor therapy to heal prolapse and incontinence, physical therapy for her knee so that she can finally walk again, specialized physical therapy for a hypermobility disorder that causes daily injury and subluxation, and speech therapy to help her swallow, to breathe, and to regain proper use of her speaking voice.

Insurance will not pay for any of these therapies. They also won’t pay for the surgery to remove her tongue tie, which causes chronic acid reflux, body tightness/hypermobility, and severe breathing issues that trap her body in fight-or-flight. She also needs funding for future orthodontia — to give her a functional airway — and a new wheelchair, as hers is breaking down and is 15 years old. In addition, Tracy needs a “not a wheelchair” – this brand creates automatic, outdoor devices that could transport Tracy on trails, the beach, and other landscapes so she can be more mobile and able to access nature.

Another pillar of Tracy’s recovery is her need for a safe and accessible living space. Tracy is autistic, and as her health declined throughout 2021, she entered an ongoing period of intense autistic burnout, characterized by debilitating sensory pain, extremely limited energy, and an overwhelmed and damaged nervous system that is constantly in fight-or-flight. Tracy needs to be in a non-communal living space to heal her nervous system and find relief from daily sensory pain and stress. If she continues without this relief, then the physical therapies won’t fully benefit her body while in a survival state. Once Tracy has a safe place to live as an autistic person and a trauma survivor, she will be able to heal her nervous system, which will then allow her body to finally heal.

Tracy has not been able to work or secure income since the end of 2021. While I had a full-time position during 2022, I was let go that October for taking too much time off to be with Tracy at her multiple weekly medical appointments and to help her with daily tasks. While I am still looking for full-time work, we truly need Tracy's medical needs to be taken care of by donors because my income alone will not allow us to meet her needs. We’ve fallen severely behind on our bills as well — paying just enough to keep our lights and water on; we need help recovering these many deficits. Living on the edge as we are keeps Tracy in overwhelming distress.

I hope that you will be touched by the story of an artist who has so many incredible visions and philosophies to share with the world and offer a financial gift that will allow her to rest and heal.

Thank you for taking the time to read Tracy's story.

Gratefully,

Matthew R. Leistra

Follow Tracy on Instagram if you'd like to see the art she made over the last few years. Her handle is: @withoutatrace8

Check out her youtube if you'd like to see the short films she made over the last few years: https://bit.ly/3BiIJIb