My husband and I were trying for our second child when I received my breast cancer diagnosis. In an instant, my seemingly perfect life plan was shattered into a million pieces. I didn’t know my future or even if I had a future, but I was confident about one thing. If I made it to the other side, I wanted to have the ability to grow my family. We had the weight of the world on our shoulders and only a few short days to make a decision that would impact the rest of our lives. In that moment, we should not have been thinking about money, but cancer comes at a cost that follows you for the rest of your life.

Although we are still feeling the financial strain eight years after my diagnosis, we are grateful that we decided to preserve my fertility. Cancer has taken so many things from me, but on January 11, 2021, I took my life back when my twins were born via gestational carrier. I hadn’t realized it then, but I never moved past my diagnosis. I couldn’t. I was grateful for every precious moment with my husband and daughter Corryn, but I also felt an unexplainable emptiness.

That emptiness is now full of love for my completed family of 5. For the first time in 8 years, I feel like I am living. That is a gift that should never come with a price tag.

– Tammy and Jordan

Finding out you have cancer is heartbreaking…in so many ways.

Having made it through major abdominal surgery to remove 7 inches of my colon, knowing the doctors had removed the entire tumor, and that I was moving forward with chemo to give me the best long-term chances for survival, I thought I had made it through the worst of treatment. And then, at my chemo consultation, I learned that chemotherapy would likely destroy my ovaries, and with it, mine and my husband’s ability to have the family we dreamed of, the family we had worked so hard for. I had been able to stay positive through much of the journey with cancer, but hearing that, my heart broke all over again.

When my oncologist referred me to The Fertility Center, I felt like it was a long shot. I knew IVF was expensive, an expense we hadn’t saved for – I had only found out I had cancer just over a month ago, and somehow the effect chemotherapy has on a woman’s ovaries isn’t something that is talked about. I had never considered that I would need this procedure. I also knew IVF cycles take time…time I didn’t have. I was terrified to delay chemo and risk my health and life.

I am so thankful to The Fertility Center, and specifically Dr. Giuliani, for so quickly taking me on as a patient, explaining an expedited cycle available for cancer patients with the goal of freezing eggs or embryos. In that first meeting my fears of time were erased. I could still pursue options to have the family we wanted without risking my ability to be alive and there for that family. Dr. Giuliani, the nurses, the ultrasound technicians, all of the staff – everyone was eager to help get the process moving quickly and so empathetic and caring. Finding out they keep a reserve of medication specifically for cancer patients so we can start treatment immediately without having to wait for medications to be shipped, was such a relief – when you’re up against the clock, every single day is important.

Even being so fortunate to have such an incredible and supportive Fertility Preservation team, there is still the cost of the actual procedures. It is expensive. Had we known we would need to freeze embryos we could have planned in the year leading up to it, but when you have cancer you don’t have time to save. You have to move quick. You’re already overwhelmed by medical bills, recovery, still trying to comprehend your diagnosis and what that could mean for your future, trying not to stress for fear of accelerating the cancer (is that possible? I don’t know, but you’re scared anything and everything will make it worse) and then your contemplating “how do I put a price on my family?”

The answer is, I couldn’t put a price on my family. The Fertility Preservation Foundation stepped in to help relieve much of this burden. When Dr. Giuliani called to let me know I would be receiving a grant to help cover some of the costs, I hung up and started crying tears of relief, tears of gratitude. Cancer can take so much, but with the help of the Fertility Preservation Foundation and the Fertility Center, cancer wasn’t able to take my ability to have the family we hoped for. That battle I won, WE won, and I am more grateful than I can express. This win, inspires even more hope that I can win the bigger fight too – that I am supposed to beat cancer – and that is PRICELESS for both me and my family. It is more than just the funds provided, I wholeheartedly believe with that comes the gift of life – the life of a future child AND the life saved by empowering a woman to fight and to know she is supposed to beat cancer.

 – Ashley Williams