Meet Dayna. She's a young, loving mother of a vibrant two-year old. She also has a Grade 4 glioblastoma. After fleeing an abusive marriage, Dayna began raising her daughter Maddie on her own without the aid of child support. Together they've created a wonderful life, filled with walks to the park, reading books, and playing with Maddie's Legos. They have a loving church family, and enjoy being as involved as possible with their local town. Dayna has always had the gift of creating a sense of community wherever she goes, and enjoys get-togethers with family and friends. She is a writer, lover of travel, and a musician.Until recently, Dayna was a bank teller, with many beloved clients, and Madeleine was in a fabulous preschool where she enjoyed learning her alphabet and how to count. But, then a few months ago Dayna began needing to leave work early quite often due to debilitating headaches...
I’ve known Dayna since my first year of grade school. She was my sister’s childhood best friend. The three of us, along with her younger brother, started a ‘band’ called Sugar High that never made it out of her garage, but was a really great excuse to sing Britney Spears while eating innumerable kinds of crackers. She had a swinging rope in her backyard that scared the bejeezus out of me, but Dayna went nuts on it. All of my sister’s other friends hid from the camcorder recording my sister’s 12th birthday - Dayna grinned down the lens and waved like a maniac. As a kid, Dayna’s energy and enthusiasm for absolutely everything was exhilarating. As an adult, her boundless energy radiates through her love for her family and her determination to live the best possible life with them. I mainly interact with her through Facebook, like most of us with people we knew in our youth, but seeing Dayna’s life through her posts represents one of the few times I’ve been truly, truly grateful for Facebook, because watching her explore the world, have a daughter, and build her life has genuinely been a privilege. She’s such a stellar lady.
She’s named her tumor Cleatus, for God’s sake.
It’s deeply unfair that she is facing off against this disease, and even though I know a lot of you here on Tumblr don’t have a lot to spare, I at least wanted to get her story to more people. Dayna is such a sweet, loving, deserving person, and the only way I have to rage against what she’s up against is to tell as many people about it. If you can give something, that would be fantastic, but if not, just think good thoughts her way or send her love on her Facebook page.
Thanks for reading.