Amy Nelson's medical charts say one thing, her heart says something else.
Nelson, a 41-year-old nonprofit agency worker who has an aggressive form of breast cancer, is facing five grueling months of chemotherapy, enough to fill anyone's mind with dread.
Mark KennedyYet, when she thinks about all the people who have donated to her online account at GoFundMe.com, her sadness gives way to gratitude.
"It puts the whole experience in a different perspective," says Nelson, whose online fund has amassed $5,370 from 86 donors in 12 days. "I'm lucky to have people do something so wonderful for me."
Nelson is facing a long absence from work, and the GoFundMe account - set up by a friend while Nelson was having a double mastectomy - is helping pay the bills. One week it pays for groceries, she says, the next week doctors.
While she has health insurance, Nelson says, her paid sick leave has run out and medical co-pays and deductibles have begun to pile up. She says her husband, Eric, who works for at a local veterinary office, has tried to shield her from money talk. But she worries.
Michelle Micor, a spokeswoman for GoFundMe, says that since 2010 more than $42 million has been raised on the crowdfunding website for breast cancer patients. GoFundMe.com collects a 5 percent fee from each donation.
All told, more than $1 billion in contributions has changed hands through GoFundMe, which includes money for everything from sick people seeking help to beauty pageant contestants asking for travel money.
Nelson said she found a lump in one of her breasts during a self-examination.
Her mother, who had worked in an oncologist's office for 32 years, told her to get it checked out. At first, Nelson's doctors though she had a relatively mild form of cancer, but during her surgery they found out it was invasive and aggressive.
"Instead of something that was going to keep me out of work from four to six weeks, I'm looking at five months of chemo," she explains.
Nelson says she has a deep well of supporters; friends and family members who come and sit with her when she's feeling sick. One friend sends her a postcard every day. She also has the companionship of four pets - her dogs, Basil and Fig, and two cats, Robot and Microphone.
Nelson and her husband are musicians, and their friends in punk rock bands have been especially supportive, she says.
But the helpers that touch Nelson the most are the anonymous donors who make small donations to her GoFundMe account. She remembers how she used to donate to crowdfunding sites. She says she was thankful to have a quiet way of helping when she only had a few dollars to spare.
"I know from being in nonprofit work that if a lot of people give a little to a cause, it can end up being a lot of money," Nelson says.
Websites such as GoFundMe are our 21st century coin jars. Nelson's account has 86 donors and 424 shares on Facebook, which may be one of the most noble byproducts of the social-media age.
"GoFundMe has helped me see how people actually care about my situation," Nelson says. "Some mornings I don't feel so lucky, but I'm actually as lucky as you can get."
Nelson's GoFundMe page can be found at gofundme.com/zz6y7fm4.
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOL UMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.