Mio Woman Battles Cancer as Community Pitches in to Help
Last year Tasha Kann’s life was changed with the diagnosis of anaplastic astrocytoma grade 3, which is a rare brain tumor and cancer.
Doctors originally gave her a prognosis of five to eight years, but recently new brain scans show that the cancer has grown from her central nervous system and is now diffused deep, invading three lobes of her brain. The new discovery changed her prognosis to only 12 months. “They pulled me up at tumor board because she had requested it as I was a new patient,” said Tasha. “After looking at all of the scans together this past year there was actually growth from the central nervous system that they didn’t see before.”
The Kann family refuses to give up hope. They reached out to the Burzynski Clinic in Texas and Tasha is now receiving possible life saving treatment, but it’s not cheap. Her current treatment is $17,000 per month for at least 12 months. They have received a lot of support from her husband Taylor’s fellow deputies at the Oscoda County Sheriff’s office. “We couldn’t have done this treatment without them,” Taylor said. “Essentially they are saving her life. Standard traditional treatment would not have worked for her.”
Both Tasha and Taylor and leaning on each other for support. “I’d be dead without him,” Tasha said. “He gets up in the morning goes to work comes home and takes care of me and the kids. I couldn’t do it without him.”
The family’s GoFundMe page has raised almost $18,000 so far, but medical bills keep coming. The family plans to hold a raffle fundraiser dinner at the Mio community center on August 3 at 5:30 p.m.
You can also follow along their journey by visiting the family’s Facebook page here.
