Campaign Story

Hello! My name is Rachel, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer back in May of 2021 at the age of 34. I have no family history and tested negative for any genetic mutations that have been directly linked to breast cancer, so this came out of left field. Since I am not old enough to qualify for regular screenings, self exams were also not on my radar and luckily my husband happened to find my lump by chance, which saved my life. We caught it in the early stages and with surgery back in June, they were able to remove the tumor and a small amount that was found in one of my lymph nodes. Since chemotherapy can cause infertility, prior to starting I went through a round of IVF where we were able to create 4 healthy embryos to give us hope of starting a family one day. After 16 rounds of chemo, I am currently undergoing 30 rounds of radiation to complete out active treatment. Since my type of cancer is hormone receptive (estrogen and progesterone +), I will then need to be on hormone therapy for at least 10 years which puts me in medically induced menopause. I am also considered high-risk for a reoccurrence, and going off of hormone therapy to try for a pregnancy using our embryos would put myself at risk of the cancer coming back since the medications are aimed at preventing that. We are now realizing that surrogacy is the best way to go, without risking my health/life to bring our child into this world. I want to stay around for my future family!

As many know, surrogacy does not come cheap and unfortunately insurance will not cover the costs. Any donations towards helping us bring baby Rose into this world would be greatly appreciated by Jon and I. Thanks for reading!