Stories from Grateful Patients: Kimberly
In Her Own Words...

"At the age of 26, I was diagnosed with my first cancer - thyroid cancer. Not even two years after that diagnosis, I was diagnosed with another cancer. It's very rare. Its called adenoid cystic carcinoma, and it was located in my sinus cavity. Due to how rare this cancer is, surgery and radiation are mainly what is recommended to treat it. After surgery I had radiation, and radiation burned a hole in my face. I had to have multiple plastic reconstructive surgeries to my face to close the hole. Due to all the surgeries and treatment I lost my eye, my hearing and my smell. A few short years after that, I got diagnosed with my third cancer, which was melanoma. I had surgery to remove the melanoma, and I was lucky we had caught it early. Last year I began to notice a tender spot on my head and brushed it off as being hardware from a previous surgery but once we did the MRI we found out it was not hardware, but something was there that was not there on my previous scan. The doctors agreed to remove it, and we found out that the adenoid cystic carcinoma had returned after 18 years. There is no cure for this cancer. It's just so rare that they dont know much about it."
"I live in Milledgeville, Georgia. The only place that can treat my cancer and accomodate all my complications is Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. I didn't know how I was going to get there."
"So the American Cancer Society had told me about Mercy Medical Angels. I gave them a call and everyone that I talked to was always very helpful and answered all of my questions. We were thrilled to find out that our flight had gotten picked up and enjoyed our time in the sky, getting to know our pilot and about his plane. We had one little hiccup with the weather on our route home and were going to have to stay overnight in Virginia until the next day when we got call that the pilot thought he could fly us home that evening. And within an hour, the pilot showed up and got us home in 45 minutes. We had a wonderful time and we are so blessed and thankful to have met such kind, wonderful people."
"Just know you all are doing an amazing job. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart!"
~Kimberly