Brother Starts GoFundMe For Sister Battling Cervical Cancer

OAK LAWN, IL — Kylie McElheny thought the worst had already happened when an identity thief emptied her bank account. She wasn't prepared for the three words she heard the next day during a routine gynecological exam: “You have cancer.”

“My heart stopped,” the Oak Lawn woman said. “My life flashed before my eyes. All of this at a time that is supposed to be my best years. I thought, ‘This can’t be real.'”

Since her diagnosis of stage 3 cervical cancer Oct. 30, Kylie has undergone 27 rounds of radiation and five rounds of chemotherapy at the Advocate Christ Medical Center Cancer Institute. She is on four of five rounds of brachytherapy, a form of internal radiation to shrink a 6-centimeter tumor that's wrapped around an artery. Brachytherapy is an eight-minute procedure that requires eight hours of preparation.

At age 26, Kylie will lose her insurance through her parents' medical plan at the end of year under the Affordable Care Act. She’s unable to work because of her illness and has moved back home with her parents. Her older brother, Steve, a Chicago musician better known as “Stevie Mac,” has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help his sister with some of her medical and prescription costs once she is taken off her parents' insurance. “Kylie’s Cause” has raised $12,440 toward a goal of $20,000.

This isn’t the first time cancer has visited Kylie’s family. The longtime Oak Lawn McElheny clan was dumbstruck when Kylie’s 8-year-old cousin, Sarah McElheny, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2012. The Columbus Manor third-grader was responding well to chemotherapy when she contracted West Nile virus. Sarah succumbed to her illness that same fall.

Doctors have told Kylie that her form of cancer has an 85 percent cure rate. However, the chemo and radiation have also rendered her unable to bear children.

“That’s the worst part,” she said in a GoFundMe narrative, full of fighting words for cancer.

She believes in a combination of traditional and alternative medical approaches to treating cancer.

“Because it had such a high cure rate, I thought I’d give brachytherapy a try,” Kylie said. “I still believe in taking vitamins. I have a lot of family members with cancer who have lived years past the life expectancy because of alternative medicine.”

Before her illness, Kylie was a nanny. Now, she wants to start a nonprofit alternative medicine spa that offers hope to other people who’ve heard the same three words — “you have cancer.” “There are tons of success stories from people who have tried alternative medicine,” Kylie said on the eve of her fourth brachytherapy treatment. “There are infrared waves, cleanses, diet and super sauna photon genius.”

Her last brachytherapy treatment is Jan. 2. Then Kylie goes in for CAT scans every three months for the next five years to ensure that she is cancer-free.

“I look forward to detoxifying,” she said. “I’m excited to getting back to where I was before I got sick. I will be even healthier.”

Make a donation and learn more about Kylie McElheny’s cancer journey.