“Olivia”

The Leigh Sakoda Foundation honored the life of Harry Weller, one of the foundation’s significant donors, who recently passed away at age 46. Harry was inspired by Leigh’s courage and compassion for others, and had a personal interest in helping young women fight rare and aggressive cancer. On this day we made a very important grant to a 34 year old woman in Pennsylvania who was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma of the cervix, a very rare soft tissue cancer. She has had to do a complete abdominal hysterectomy and is undergoing numerous rounds of chemotherapy. She is a school administrator, and is unable to work and is receiving only a portion of her salary through short-term disability. Her husband continues to work full time, but the medical bills are becoming burdensome due to the increasing load of housing expenses and childcare for their two young children. This grant will help them with mortgage payments as well as utility bills for their small apartment.