My beautiful 22 year-old niece Mariah, my sister Candi's daughter, Musician, Denver Bronco's fanatic and Star Wars aficionado, is battling cancer again. In the summer of 2013 she was diagnosed for the first time with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was about to begin her senior year of college at Southern Mississippi State University as a music major. She went through chemotherapy for 6 very difficult months at the Cancer Center in Jackson, MS, they made her very ill and it was a rough battle. But then went into remission in the spring of 2014 and we were all elated. She was having scans monthly and doing great getting life back to normal until two weeks ago when her scan found something. Last week she had tests ran and then went into the hospital for a biopsy and our worst fears were confirmed. Her cancer has returned and this time it is worse. Our family who loves her so very much are devastated, but we know once again she will be victorious and beat this monster with the same amazing smile and attitude she has always had. She is my hero. She is strong and faithful and loving and smart and talented and compassionate and has the best heart of anyone I have ever met. Her Aunt Amy has loved and cherished her madly since the day she came into my life when I was 17 years old. Life is so beautiful with her in the world. So the battle begins. A huge part of the battle is financing it. Mariah was a student when this began and did not have insurance coverage. She has been turned down for Medicaid twice and we are trying again. Now she will not be able to work again making even taking care of basic necessities difficult to say the least. Her cancer center is far from her home. It is an almost 5 hour round trip jaunt every time they need to go. My sister lives even farther away and will have to take her for weekly chemotherapy treatments and appointments and miss work herself. So, going to do whatever I can to help them out and this is one way I can make a difference for a girl who has certainly made a huge difference in my life just by being in it. She will need money for her part of treatment, prescriptions, for gas, for food, for long hospital stays so anything our amazing friends and family can donate, no matter how little will help her in a BIG way. She deserves it, she deserves the world.

UPDATE: Mariah has gone through her chemo the past four months like a champ as usual and is about to face her hardest longest part of the fight with her stem cell transplant. It will require long hospital stays so just putting this back out there for her:)))