My friend Natalie Cox has been
diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive type of cancer.
After having tumors removed from her breast, it spread to her spleen,
liver, lung walls and legs. Neither surgery nor chemo are considered
viable options at this point. Natalie is pursuing holistic treatments to
prolong the amount of time she has with her beautiful 3 year old son
Dillion, and each day he gets to spend with her he is all the better for
it.
Natalie and I worked together planning the original
Ladyfest arts festival in 2000 and I can still easily recall the quiet
moments of awe I had hanging out in her house and how cool and grown up
she seemed. She had a million records, a slicing sense of humor, played
in awesome bands, could speak in great detail about how to reupholster a
truck bench and always seemed to be eating exotic snacks I had never
tried before. One of these snacks being kiwi which, as it turns out, I'm
severely allergic to, but pretended not to be because it seemed so
incredibly uncool to be allergic to kiwi.
This reflects a
level of neuroses that has always been absent from Natalie's worldview.
She's someone who was born a punk in the greatest sense of the word,
her strong sense of building community, sharing resources and enjoying
life made an indelible mark on me as I'm sure it has anyone who's had
the chance to know her over the years.
Natalie's friends
have set up a fund to help defray the enormous costs of her medical
treatments. I urge you to contribute
if you can, and if you can't, to read her blog as she documents these
experiences. People always say this kind of stuff when they know someone
who has cancer, but it's true: Her resilience and strength throughout
all this is truly inspirational to me and I want to share it with you.
Thanks,
xox
Erin
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