Cancer has impacted my life in many ways - both of my beloved grandmothers had cancer and I had my own breast cancer diagnosis back in 2014.  But nothing could possibly prepare me for the day my healthy, loving, beautiful 27-year old daughter, Rachael (Rae), was diagnosed with brain cancer, a Grade 3 Astrocytoma.  From the moment we were standing in the grocery store and got the call from her doctor following her CT scan (a result of a week of severe headaches) - 'You have swelling on the brain, you need to go to the Emergency Room right now' - to the moment we watched her being taken in on a gurney for brain surgery to the moment we got the cancer diagnosis, we were (and in many ways still are) in a state of total shock.  To say the rug was pulled out from under us is an understatement of epic proportions.  She is now receiving 6-weeks of radiation treatments which will be followed by 11-months of oral chemotherapy, and currently undergoing fertility treatments to freeze her eggs in case the chemo makes her infertile.  

Rae is a badass, a warrior, and our hero!   And the outpouring of love and support we have received from family, friends, health care providers, and strangers time and again brings us to tears, and reminds us of all that is good in this world.  According to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), more than 3.8 million cancer deaths have been prevented since 1991 thanks to cancer research.  Please help me raise funds for AACR's cancer research, not only for Rae, but for all the daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, and loved ones fighting this horrible disease.  AACR sets a goal of $500 - please help me blow this goal out of the water!!  Thank you so very much!