Marsha was officially diagnosed with breast cancer on June 3, 2022. The type of her particular cancer is Triple Negative Breast Cancer. This simply means that it started in her milk ducts, spread to her breast tissue, and then spread outside of the breast tissue and into her axillary lymph nodes under her armpit. She found a lump in her armpit while on a girl’s trip in Florida but didn’t think much of it. About a month later, she noticed a lump in her breast over the Memorial Day weekend. She went in for a mammogram on that Tuesday, had a biopsy on Wednesday which came back as metastatic invasive ductal carcinoma in both the breast and the lymph nodes. She then had a PET scan Thursday that also showed a spot on her lung that led her to a diagnosis of Stage 4 metastatic cancer with grade 3 tumors. This gave her a prognosis of a 22% 5 year survival rate. Because of her age, her oncologist was willing to fight with her. They agreed to do a biopsy of the spot on her lung so they could assess how to best fight this. The biopsy of the spot on her lung came back as NOT being cancerous and was diagnosed definitively as something else that is benign. She has had a complete abdominal and breast MRI and has not had any other signs of the cancer spreading to other parts of her body. This brought her staging back to a stage 3b.

     Marsha started her 20 weeks of chemo on June 21 and is currently in her 3rd week of treatment. Occasional nausea, fatigue and dizziness are her only things she has mentioned as a side effects so far; however, her white blood cell counts are very low. These need to stay high enough so that she does not miss any of her treatments. She has been staying active and using her alternative supports to keep the side effects to a minimum. Once her 20-week treatment schedule is fulfilled, they will reassess and move to either more chemo, radiation or surgery based on the success of these first 20 weeks.

     God is part of Marsha's plan and has been since the beginning. From finding the lump to getting the best possible doctors, and having an army of friends surrounding her with prayer and support, He has been blessing her in the midst of chaos and storm. She has been very touched by everyone who has reached out with food, phone calls, etc. Many of you have asked how you can help, so a group of her friends have come together to make a plan. The most needed thing now is PRAYER! Pray for complete healing and remission is their biggest prayer, as well as for guidance, strength, and discernment for the upcoming months as they navigate this season.