As many of our followers know, Angela Eates Seed passed away after fighting a courageous 5 year battle with leukemia. Twice during the 5 years, Angela had to undergo intensive treatment and a bone marrow transplant down at Duke University. These were not just 2 quick trips down to Duke for treatment. The average course of treatment for a person receiving a bone marrow transplant takes about 100 days. The “100 days” approximation is assuming that everything leading up to the transplant AND the post-transplant recovery goes smoothly and without complications. But let’s be honest, when is life ever without hiccups and complications, especially when we are talking about cancer? For Angela’s two rounds of treatment at Duke, we had to uproot our life here in Virginia and move into temporary housing down in North Carolina for several months. The cost to rent our apartment near Duke was around $100 per day! I’m sure you can do the math, but for the 4-6 months of treatment, this comes out to $12,000-$18,000 just for a family to pay rent for an apartment. Other costs we incurred included daily parking fees at the hospital, gas, food (most of which was expensive take out because we were always at the hospital, and rarely in the apartment for long enough to cook), medical expenses not covered by insurance, etc. Some of the wonderful people we met during our time at Duke also had to pay for child care and pet care. This is all IN ADDITION TO all of the expenses and monthly bills associated with your house and life back home. And keep in mind, all of these expenses are coming at a time when you’re experiencing a major loss of income because in most cases at least one or two people are unable to work for several months. As if the emotional and physical strain is not enough, the financial strain for anyone fighting cancer is tremendous. Lucky for us, we had an amazing support group - family, friends, and even people we didn’t know stepped up and helped us through the most difficult times by organizing and donating to fundraisers, running my business back home, and taking care of day to day things around our house. Unfortunately, so many people and families battling cancer may not have the same volume of support we had. Medical insurance and grants only go so far, so this is where organizations like the AES Cancer Foundation step in. In order to honor Angela and the tremendous legacy she left, we started this foundation to help families going through similar situations. While Angela’s outcome was not at all what we hoped and prayed for, the treatment and bone marrow transplants she received at Duke still gave her more time, and gave us more time with her. After all we went through, our wish would be that families battling cancer could just focus on their health and spending quality time together, without having to stress about the bills and debt that are piling up, or the fear of losing their home due to past due mortgage payments. Over the last 2 years, we have helped numerous families with their rent, mortgage, utility bills, and medical bills. Our hope is that we can continue to grow so that we are able to help more families in the future. You can help at any time by visiting our website and making a donation. https://aescancerfoundation.com/donate/We are also excited about our upcoming 2nd Annual AES Golf Tournament at Sleepy Hole Golf Course on Ocotber 4th, which offers many different ways that you can help us raise money! One obvious way to get involved is to register a team to participate in the tournament. But if golfing is not your jam, there are still plenty of ways you can help us with fundraising. Please help us spread the word by sharing our posts, Facebook page, website, information about the golf tournament, Angela’s story, etc. We are also looking for hole sponsors for the tournament - this can be businesses, families, individuals, your dog, cat, or anyone! We are also looking for donations that can be used for raffles - gift cards, themed baskets, excursions, or any other items that people can buy raffle tickets for - they don’t have to be golf related. We also need volunteers to help over the next several weeks, and the day of the tournament. If you want to help in any way, or have questions, feel free to reach out. For more information about the tournament, visit our website: https://aescancerfoundation.comLet’s continue to celebrate Angela and make her proud by continuing to help other families in need! We appreciate your continued support. Love, Tripp #teamangela #nevergiveup #noonefightsalone #leukemia #leusm #bloodcancer #cancer #leukemiaawareness Some sad and some funny now but not always at the time