Colleen is a 37-year-old mom of three adorable children. She and her husband live in Idaho and have been happily married for almost nine years.
When her little ones were just 3yrs, 1.5yrs and 6mos, Colleen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She moved in with her parents in Issaquah, WA for a few months while she underwent various treatments for her cancer. She fought hard, and was successful. Before long, she was declared “in remission” and headed home to begin her road to recovery.
Fast forward to November of 2010. Colleen’s children were starting school and she was looking forward to celebrating 5 years cancer-free in August 2011. The party was all planned, but a routine scan showed that all was not well. The cancer was back.
This time, it has spread to various tricky parts of her body, such as her blood and bone marrow. They called it lymphoma-leukemia, and she began chemotherapy again.
This time the solution isn’t so simple. To ensure that the cancer will stay away this time (hopefully), doctors will be performing a stem cell and bone marrow transplant, using a donor (Colleen’s sister Amy). The procedure requires that Colleen be within minutes of medical care for at least 4 months. Her children can be with her, but since the transplant and treatments will be happening in Seattle, they will all need to pack up and move here.
Insurance doesn’t cover everything. That’s where we come in. To help diffuse the costs of transportation, lodging, and feeding her family away from home, not to mention hospital bills, we started this blog, where we can get the word out, collect donations for her family, and hold a fundraiser auction of goods and services.
We thank you for visiting and reading Colleen’s story. We hope you will continue to come back as we add auctions and more content to this blog.
If you know Colleen or her family personally, you can follow the current details of her story at CaringBridge.org.
Thank you!
