Stand With Rachael

Rachael is 39 years old, my wife, and the mother of our four young children. In November 2025, our lives changed when she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

What followed has been nearly 11 months of appointments, scans, hospitalizations, treatment decisions, research, prayer, uncertainty, and an incredible amount of support from people around us.

There have been some remarkable victories.

One of the most concerning parts of Rachael’s diagnosis was leptomeningeal disease (LMD), meaning cancer involving the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Her most recent brain MRI showed no visible evidence of the LMD that had previously been seen. The tumor at the base of her skull has also decreased in size, tumors in her lungs have been shrinking, and for a period of time her symptoms and tumor markers improved dramatically.

That progress is not something we take for granted. It is a powerful reminder that the prayers, treatments, therapies, support, and care have been effective.

We are profoundly thankful to God for every one of those victories.

But the fight is not over!

Over the past several weeks, something appears to have changed. Rachael has experienced increasing pain, fluid retention, the return of her cough, and new pleural effusions, meaning small amounts of fluid collecting around her lungs. Her tumor markers have also begun trending upwards.

More recently, imaging identified new spots on her liver. We do not yet know exactly what they represent, and additional evaluation is needed.

This past week, Rachael was hospitalized after developing severe hypercalcemia, a dangerously high level of calcium in the blood that also began affecting her kidneys. Thankfully, treatment brought the calcium down significantly and her kidney function began recovering.

We are now trying to understand whether the biology of her cancer has changed or whether it has developed new resistance mechanisms. Updated molecular testing has been requested, and we are continuing to work with her oncology team on next steps. Radiation treatment to one of the most seriously affected areas of her spine (L3) is also being considered, with the hope that it will significantly reduce her chronic and sometimes debilitating pain.

Why We Still Need Help

The generosity shown to our family since this began has been extraordinary.

More than $45,000 has been donated to help with Rachael’s care. We have carefully tracked those funds, and they have been used for cancer-related expenses including medical consultations, specialty testing, imaging, prescriptions, treatments, supplements, travel, supportive therapies, and other expenses that are not covered by insurance.

Some of those costs began even before Rachael’s official diagnosis, when we were already paying for specialized scans and testing while trying to determine what was wrong.

Nearly 11 months later, those funds have now been used.

That is difficult for us to say because so many people have already given so generously. But cancer care is extraordinarily expensive, particularly when many of the consultations, tests, supportive treatments, and other therapies we pursue fall outside what insurance will cover.

At the same time, Rachael’s need for care has not stopped.

We are therefore continuing this fundraiser to help with the next phase of her treatment and the expenses that come with it.

Those expenses may include:

1. Consultations
2. Molecular and genetic testing
3. Specialty imaging and laboratory testing
4. Prescriptions and supportive medications
5. Integrative and supportive therapies
6. Supplements and nutritional support
7. Travel and transportation for appointments
8. Medical equipment and supplies
9. Other cancer-related expenses not covered by insurance

Every donation allows us to keep pursuing the options available to Rachael without having to make decisions solely because of cost.

Our Faith and Hope

Our faith remains at the center of how we are walking through this.

We believe firmly in the God who heals, and Rachael has been anointed according to James 5. We continue to pray for complete healing while also doing everything within our ability to seek wise medical care and make responsible decisions.

There have already been moments in this journey that have given us tremendous reason for gratitude, particularly the disappearance of the visible leptomeningeal disease.

We do not know exactly what the next chapter will look like.

Our prayer is that we will quickly understand what has changed, that the next treatment decisions will be effective, and that Rachael will continue to be here to raise our children and share many more years with our family.

How You Can Help

If you feel moved to help, there are several ways you can stand with Rachael.

You can donate toward her continuing treatment and medical expenses. You can share this fundraiser so that her story reaches others. Most importantly, you can pray for Rachael, for wisdom in the decisions ahead, and for our family as we continue walking through this.

We know that many people who have already given have sacrificed to do so. We do not take that lightly.

Every dollar has mattered.

Every prayer has mattered.

Every meal, message, visit, ride, offer to help with our children, and act of kindness has mattered.

Thank you for carrying part of this burden with us.

We remain enormously grateful, hopeful, and determined to keep fighting.

With love and gratitude,

Alex and Rachael