Story
Name
Brianne Ward
Injury/Illness
Breast Cancer
My family and I sold our home a few years ago, hoping we would be able to travel and adventure. I worked through agencies and we visited a few places, but we had some unfortunate bills that came up and didn't get to enjoy travel as much as we wanted. We have a family cabin in the mountains that we lived in over the summer/fall months while I worked the last couple of years trying to save up, staying with family over the winter time. We were ready to take a big leap and travel for 3 months to Europe over the spring, but I felt a lump in my breast a few weeks before we were to leave. I got an appointment for a mammogram to get it checked out before we left. A week before we were supposed to leave, I was told I have breast cancer. We had dumped thousands of dollars of savings into this trip, and now it was gone. Because of a technicality, our insurance wouldn't pay us. Not only that, the plan was for me to go back to work when we returned, and now I can't work due to my treatments. I'm currently getting chemotherapy, and after I finish 6 rounds, I will need to have surgery. After surgery, I will need radiation and then continued targeted chemotherapy for 11 more rounds. We find ourselves in dire need of income, and bouncing between staying with family and our cabin will have to end at some point, but we don't have income for rent. My husband was a stay at home dad, so he's been desperately now trying to find work that he can do around having to care for me when I'm so sick from chemo and recovering from surgery, as well as taking care of our daughter. We appreciate any help that we can get to get us through the rough days.