Such a simple thing — breathing in, breathing out. Picking late season dandelions and with a puff of air, sending their seeds spinning into the summer sky. The inhaled scent of fresh baked bread. The exhale of laughing delight. So simple and easy. Until it isn’t.
I haven’t slept right since Lin told me about the doctors’ diagnosis. The breast cancer they had thought beaten had shape shifted, metastasized, invading Lin’s bones and lungs. “Weeks,” the doctors said. “Maybe a few months.”
She had biopsies of her lungs done yesterday. The doctors are hoping that what they find can be treated by clinical trials in the pipeline. They hope that there is a match giving Lin more time to breathe. To live. We’ll know in a few days.
Lin is on oxygen now. We had to stop talking on the phone because speaking was becoming more difficult for her.
Breath Life And oh, what a gift Lin has been to life.
Earlier this week Aji wrote about Lin’s life long work as an environmental attorney and activist. Aji’s love for an amazing woman so many of us know and care for poured down the page. If you haven’t read Aji’s wondrous writing, I’ll wait while you go read A Lake for Lin - A Community Fund raiser for an Eco-Warrior in the Fight of Her Life.
Lin has always fought for this beautiful blue world we all call home. Whether we knew it or not, she was fighting for all of us. Now it’s our turn to fight for her. It’s our turn to help her breathe, to live.
Lin’s wonderful sister Laura, our fellow kossack gabriella, has set up a youcaring page.
Here is their story.
The Story
Meet my sister, Linda McClure. Her friend Aji said, she’s been a warrior her whole life: for everyone, for environmental and climate justice, for the wildlife and natural resources. She’s had a successful career as an environmental lawyer, practicing on the side of Mother Earth. She’s an activist, a community/activism organizer, a writer, a sister, and friend. She was so honored when Bill McKibben stated that he could "think of no higher praise than 'great organizer,' and you're one of the greatest!"
She’s in the fight of her life, and she needs our help.
Five years ago, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. She completed a rigorous and difficult treatment protocol that enabled remission, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Since April, she has experienced severe pain in her right knee, right leg and ribs. Because of her medical history, she was concerned that her breast cancer had returned. She sought additional screening, but her mammogram turned up no evidence of new disease. Since then, her condition has progressively worsened, with severe joint and bone pain, first in her legs, then spreading through her body, and finally culminating in what doctors stated was fracturing of ribs. She continued to seek medical tests to obtain a diagnosis and treatment — her concerns were dismissed as simply arthritis and fractured ribs treated with pain pills.
Last week, Linda finally was able to see two specialists who ran diagnostic tests showing her breast cancer has now spread to her lungs and her bones.
She has been told that she has only months to live, possibly only weeks . . . except for the possibility of pursuing clinical trials or perhaps aggressive chemo. A surgical biopsy this week will determine options available.
I am hoping to raise $30,000 to cover our regular bills of $4,000 a month for housing payment, utilities, food etc. which would be needed for 6 months for the beginning of a fighting option (like clinical trial or specialized chemo) or will cover end of life if no other options. Linda is on current leave of absence from work and I work very few hours so that I can take care of her.
In addition to this base of $24,000, there are medical expenses piling up with increased co-pays: each CT her co-pay has been $500-$700; and her co-pay for lung biopsy is $3,000.
And we need medical equipment for breathing that is not covered by insurance. We have purchased a nebulizer and oxygen equipment that is 62 pounds that I must push around so Linda can walk to the bathroom. We need to purchase a truly portable "oxygen purse" for around $3500 that will enable her some mobility at home and hopefully outside our home.
Linda and I are very close; we have lived together for nearly three decades. She is my North Star. Without her income, there is the very real possibility of losing a roof over our heads, even as I face the prospect of losing my sister and best friend. We are trying, in what may be a very short time available to us, to raise sufficient funds to ensure that Linda can get the medical (and, if necessary, palliative-care) treatment that she needs, that her day-to-day needs will be provided for, and that we can keep our home while she fights this battle of — and for — her life.
Please help us remove the burden of basic survival from her shoulders, so that she can focus her energies on the battle ahead of her.
In gratitude, Laura
Aji had some good advice on how to use Lin’s and Laura’s youcaring page to help get the word out.
If you click on the link just below the blue Facebook widget and just above the list labeled "Supporters," the link labeled "Other Ways to Help," it takes you to a pop-up window with 1) social media widgets, and 2) widget code that can be posted to create an image with a running tally [and I need to be able to embed the widget, so whomever can make that happen, please do it]. Those widgets are by far the most effective means of sharing, much more likely to generate donations.
Laura has also set up a PayPal account for Lin using this e-mail address: lauramcclure01@gmail.com. If you would prefer sending a check or money order, please kosmail me and I will get Lin’s snail mail address to you.
Breath Life Hope And there is reason for hope. The oldest of my two brothers would not be alive if it wasn’t for doctors at the National Institutes of Health trying everything to save him. The same is true of my son. The same can be true for Lin.
I feel the earth breathing for her, breathing for us all.
The earth needs Lin. Needs her voice. Her heart. She can’t go now. Especially not now. Those were the thoughts that flew through my mind when I first heard the news. They still echo.
I can feel the Earth breathing for Lin. I can feel the Earth hoping for her.
I feel all of us breathing for her, hoping for her.
Breath Life Hope Breath Life Hope
These dark days are dwindling down to the Winter Solstice’s return of the light. We are of and in that light, that hope, that breath.
For Lin — lets make breath, hope, and life rise.