I was diagnosed July 2010 with stage 3 ovarian cancer. I was 27 years old when I was diagnosed and had been misdiagnosed for two years previously. I had 9 masses and 6 liters of fluid with my first surgery. I’ve had intra peritoneal chemo to start and have had now 4 reoccurrences and 38 surgeries and hundreds of rounds of chemo since diagnosis. I wasn’t supposed to make it 5 years and here I am 10 years later still fighting. Only 8% of my kind make it past 10 years. I’m truly blessed. I am divorced. My ex-husband decided after my first reoccurrence that he could not handle me being sick anymore and he chose to leave. I have two children which I’m so blessed to have. I am on the board at Twelve Baskets Food Pantry and donate my time volunteering there on a daily basis. I love giving back to my community. My local doctors said they couldn’t do anything for me anymore with my new masses that are by my aorta and by my spine. They referred me to Mayo Clinic for their expertise. I’m so thankful they are able to help me. I started a clinical trial January 8th, 2021. I must travel to and from Rochester Minnesota every 4 weeks for my treatments. They are hopeful that these treatments will help keep my cancer from growing or take it away. If there is new growth or the masses get larger then they will do surgery to remove them. I am so grateful for Wings of Mercy’s continuous help in getting me to and from these appointments. It has been a huge blessing as I live on my social security payments month to month. I heard about you guys from searching for help and asking. The pilots are so awesome!! They hold great conversations with me and share their stories and I get to share mine. And it’s even more a blessing right now cause of the Covid virus. The stress of thinking about going through TSA and the airports and sitting with a bunch of other people on a plane is eliminated because of your organization and wonderful pilots. God bless your organization and all the great volunteers and donors that make it possible for cancer patients, like me, to get the best medical care for the best chance of survival.
