Everyone knows someone with cancer. It's a disease that cares little for your plans, gives no thought to your future and reeks havoc in the lives it touches.  Its a fight for your life, and it can be an ugly abyss to face.  
My journey began, like so many others with ALK+ cancer, unexpectedly and without any idea I was sick.  Only two weeks before I was swimming in the ocean and playing frisbee.  No idea of the challenge that was to come.  I was at the peak of my career and our three sons were grown, our youngest to turn 21 just a few days after my own 50th birthday.  My husband and I approached our 25th anniversary in the fall.  It was going to be a stellar year!  
It started with a seizure. While I lay in my room, admitted because of a possible heart issue, I had no idea of the hell about to walk through the door.  Unceremoniously, two masked Doctors entered and changed my life forever. "You have stage 4 cancer.  You have about 6 months without treatment and maybe a year with.  The news devastated us all.  
Because of the grim news I received, and on the advice of trusted friends and family, we left the area and sought treatment elsewhere.  Their scans showed I had tumors throughout both lungs, in my liver, a dozen in my spine, a couple in my neck, and over 23 in my brain.  They offered some hope, but still a rather slim chance of survival.  It was there a Doctor asked if he could run a biomarker test.  Having no idea what that meant, thinking it was future research, I mumbled "sure" and headed home.  My husband wasn't going to stop however, and made an appointment at another clinic.  It was there during my first appointment the test results from the biomarker came back and I was given my first glimmer of hope. I was diagnosed with ALK positive Adenocarcinoma.  This type of cancer occurs in roughly 5% of cancers and is driven by a gene mutation.  
I take a daily pill, a TKI drug, that destroys existing tumors while simultaneously blocking new tumors from forming.   However, the disease can become resistant to the medication and progress, leaving no further options but chemo and radiation, both proven to be minimally effective in treating ALK+ cancers.  
I have been taking my TKI since mid April and my tumors are all shrinking.  Although there are some side effects from the medication, I'm feeling strong. I'm feeling healthy. I'm feeling hopeful.  
This is where you come in.  Research and clinical trials that started in 2007 when ALK+ cancer was discovered cost money.  A lot of money!  Donations are the majority of the funding for advancements in medicine.  We have a very generous contributor who will match dollar to dollar every donation made up to $500,000!  
It is only because of these rather recent advancements in treatment that I was able to celebrate those birthdays and our 25th anniversary this year.  Without them, the disease was so progressed in my body I wouldn't have survived through the spring.  
Your donations to this invaluable research will help to further treatments and medication, hopefully making ALK+ cancer a treatable life long disease rather than a terminal diagnosis.  We need testing done at the initial onset of finding cancer; not weeks or months later after our bodies have been weakened by traditional treatments.   This can only happen with your help.  Even a donation of $1 advances us that much closer.  

With much love and gratitude,

Kristen