Angus resident Kelsey De Sousa was dealing with the pandemic and the lockdown like everyone else, until two weeks ago when she was handed a cancer diagnosis.
De Sousa, 31, and her husband Tyler have three children — five-year-old Rowan, three-year-old Autumn and one-year-old Bodi. Both parents are entrepreneurs, with Kelsey operating her hair salon and her husband working as an independent contractor.
“It's been a crazy year for everyone, and I’ve been dealing with the four business shutdowns and everything else in life,” Kelsey told BarrieToday. “Now we deal with this new thing and it's just a lot right now.”
In late 2020, Kelsey found a small lump in her breast. After an exam with her family doctor and an ultrasound — it was decided a mammogram wasn’t needed due to her age — she was notified a few days later it was just a cyst.
She was to follow up in four to six months to see if there was any progression.
By March, the small lump had nearly quadrupled in size and Kelsey pushed the hospital for an immediate look.
After an ultrasound and a mammogram, she was referred to the specialized breast clinic, diagnostic assessment unit at Southlake Hospital in Newmarket.
Another ultrasound and mammogram led to the mother of three being informed she had triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of cancer that would require further assessment to see how far it had progressed. Further testing led to the realization that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and developed into Stage 3 cancer.
“It's been overwhelming. I only found out two weeks ago, so it's been a lot to process,” she said. “I actually don’t think I have processed it yet.”
Kelsey’s treatment begins today at Southlake. While she is focused on the upcoming eight treatments over the next 16 weeks, she can’t help but see she has to deal with it all during the COVID-19 era.
“It's weird because the whole pandemic I’ve not been too worried about the virus just because I felt we were being safe. I wasn’t too worried personally as I’m young and healthy,” she said. “Not, I can’t get sick from it because of this. I am worried about that part of it, but I really have to focus more on the next 16 weeks.
"And that my husband can’t be there with me, that is the sad part," Kelsey added.
With Kelsey having to spend two days every other week in Newmarket, her family’s businesses on hold and three kids to raise, her sister-in-law started a GoFundMe page for the family to help cover its costs.
So far the page, which was started on Wednesday, has raised just over $27,000 as of Thursday evening.
Kelsey says she's grateful and will focus on the battle ahead of her.
“I just can't believe the support. I wouldn’t have thought of that because I just didn't think people would help so much,” she said. "I've been sad about this, angry and now I'm just determined to beat it."
Anyone wishing to donate can access the GoFundMe page by clicking here.
