MARYSVILLE – A Marysville woman diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer is being helped with her medical bills by her brother 3,000 miles away.
Bill Rhynes, 48, a musician in Cherokee, N.C., has started an online fundraising campaign to help Sonya Breaum, 55, with her bills.
“She can’t do it alone,” Rhynes said. “She will have to quit working before long, and when she does she will lose her insurance, and treatment is ridiculously expensive.”
Breaum moved here 1 1/2 years ago from Granite Falls after her boyfriend of eight years, Ray Accomando, died suddenly of a heart attack.
After feeling sick off and on for over a year she went to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett and found out she had cancer. A tumor was blocking bile ducts from her pancreas, which caused jaundice. They also noticed a spot on her liver. Providence told her that without treatment she had six months to live.
“Not something anyone is prepared to hear at the age of fifty-five,” she said. “The idea of having to leave my three boys, daughter-in-law and three-year-old granddaughter alone really hurt the worst.”
After meeting with doctors at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, she was told without treatment she would only live one to two years. Their treatment plan is to biopsy her liver to find out exactly where the spot is. If the spot is cancer, they will try to shrink it to a size that can be removed. They would then take out her pancreas. If they are unable to clear the liver there is nothing else they can do, she said.
Rynes said he wishes he could be with his sister. “Money is so tight, my wife and I are really struggling to get by, and at the same time we have been planning a move to Washington, but even a visit right now is pretty much impossible.”
Rhynes is putting together a CD to help his sister. Among the musical roster are artists spanning genres from blues, to rock, bluegrass and metal from L.A. to Seattle, Georgia, Texas and Connecticut. The CD is titled “An Album For My Sister.”
“It’s a labor of love, and donations are coming in from all around the country, too. I’m so lucky to have the internet, good friends in the music business, and the kindness and generosity of people all over the country,” he said.
Rhynes lived in Marysville in 1988 ifor a short time with his sister. It was then that he met blues great Nick Vigarino, who appears on the album.
For details go to: www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-album-for-my-sister.
“My mom came from a family of ten children,” Rhynes says on the website, which has raised almost $1,000. “I have lost every aunt and uncle to some form of cancer, and my mom is even battling breast cancer and has been for a while now. So far she’s been keeping it at bay, but my sister is much younger than any of them. I need her to know I’m here for her, and I know she can lick it.”
