Paying it Forward...

Many of you asked me how you could help or to please let you know if there was anything you could do when my husband died 20 months ago...well now I am coming and asking for your help and letting you know what you can do…but it isn’t for me.

Since about the age of 13 I have had an amazing friend named Susan. She has laughed with me, cried with me, helped me get through some of the worst times in my life ( a divorce, a house fire that occurred while I was a single mom to 2 small children, and the death of the love of my life)…and everything in between.

Susan is 39 years old. She met and married her husband at the age of 37, followed less than a yr later by the birth of her one and only child at age 38, but 6 months after he was born she was having back issues and was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that had already spread to her spine.

She is a therapist who specializes in PTSD and more specifically cases of children and women who have experienced sexual abuse. She didn’t start out in this field and worked for years on her masters degree, paying her own way and working several jobs and studying hard to be able to help others. In spite of her illness and going through painstaking treatments she has continued to work, even though at times it has been very physically hard on her, so that she may help others.

She went through 6 months of chemo, and not long after her cancer markers were back up. She just finished the most aggressive form of chemo in her second round of it. Continuing to try to be a wife, a mother to a toddler and help her clients.

She has started a blog of her jouney…please read it so you can see what an amazing woman she is. It can be found at http://ourjourneytogether-susan.blogspot.com/


It is my hope to help Susan take a trip of a lifetime, to celebrate her 40th birthday, coming up the beginning of April. I have provided the place for her to stay in Cancun (part of my timeshare and doesnt include food or drink) and a rental car but am hoping to raise whatever funds possible to take care of the rest of her trip, allow her to do as many activities as possible while she is there and not have the worry of anything and to possibly even send her home with a little extra money to allow her to spend more time with her husband and child doing something to create a few more memories.

A week after her last chemo treatment, her cancer markers had gone back up. Considering this was the most aggressive form of chemo there is, this is not a good sign. To lay it out frankly, which is the only way Susan and I have ever been with each other and why she is one of my oldest and dearest friends, I am thankful that she will see 40 but it is a very real probability she wont see 41.

She has given so much to so many people and it is my wish to be able to give something back to someone so worthy.

It is more than I can do as one person, but with your help and the help of anyone you know who might like to do a little something for someone else, I know her dream can be made possible. My goal is to raise $2000.00 This seems like allot but if each person I know just donates 5 or 10.00 (the price of a Starbucks coffee, or a 6 pack of beer, or a movie ticket) I think this goal can be accomplished.

I am not one to ever ask of anything for myself and I have never asked for anything like this before but knowing how short and precious life is, I feel very compelled and moved to do this. Anything you can do is appreciated more than I can say. One person cant always make a huge difference alone but many people doing something small can.

Here is the link to her donation page and you can donate any amount at all…


Click HERE to help Susan


Thank you again, for reading this, and for helping my dear friend to have this opportunity to have one week in her life that wasn’t about anyone else but her.

God Bless

Roxanne