For those of you who don’t know, a few months ago, my mom, Lisa was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that has also spread to her liver.

She developed sudden severe stomach pain that brought her to the ER. She thought she may have had an ulcer. Little did she know the doctor would come in her room and tell her what we now know. She was healthy and  did everything right and this still happened. Her world, our world, as we knew it froze, life would never be the same.

It is hard for me to even be writing this because I still have a hard time believing this is our life. Nothing can ever prepare you for that shock and heartbreak. What went from living a normal, healthy, fun, happy life, went to a life of unknown. A life filled with doctor appointments, tests, scans, chemo, side effects, worry, anxiety, and all things she would never have imagined her life to be. But my mom chose to fight, and fighting is what she has done.

My mom is the strongest and bravest woman I know. We take it one day at a time. We have learned to appreciate every moment. And to celebrate the good days. Good days have a new meaning to them now. We believe in miracles. We believe in prayer. We fight this fight everyday with my mom, by her side, she will never fight this alone. My moms cancer will never define her. My dad needs his wife, my brother and I need our mom, her son in law and daughter in law need their mother in law, and most importantly her three grandchildren need their Cha-Cha!

Our family has put together a team, Y-town Fighters for Lisa, for “taking steps to end pancreatic cancer at PanCAN PurpleStride”. We would love for you to join our team and/or make a donation to help support my mom and fight alongside her! We will be making shirts as well for anyone who would like to order one. Unfortunately, our immediate family will not be able to attend the day of the actual walk, but we will be all together in our shirts, and our cbus family and friends will be out there walking for my mom.

We also want to thank everyone for all of the love and support you have shown my mom and my family over these past few months, it has meant everything to us!