KITTERY, Maine — To be diagnosed with a chronic illness just months before losing her parents’ health insurance surely wasn’t something Alex Thayer ever expected.
At age 25, she relished the accomplishment of buying her own home, while working her dream job as a veterinarian technician and adoption coordinator at Kittery Animal Hospital, where she began as an intern in 2007. A motivated, active young woman, she enjoyed time with her boyfriend of many years, time outdoors, and her two cats and two dogs.
In December, Thayer was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Next month, she’ll turn 26, and as March expires, so will her eligibility for coverage under her parents’ health insurance. For insurance that will cover all four of her doctors, she’s looking at a $900 a month out-of-pocket premium.
[Subscribe to our free morning newsletter and get the latest headlines in your inbox]
An eight-week chemotherapy treatment can run up to an average of approximately $30,000, and most insurance companies may only pay an 80 percent dividend, leaving the remaining 20 percent as an out-of-pocket expense for the patient to pay.
Yet in the midst of a financial and medical whirlwind, Thayer’s motto is, “Just keep going.”
“I just gotta roll with it,” she said. “You can’t let it stop you in your tracks. You gotta get through it. I have a lot of people supporting me and you gotta stay positive.” Thayer grew up in Kittery, graduated from Traip Academy in 2011, and her parents both work for the school district.
In the weeks since her diagnosis, the greater Kittery community has essentially wrapped Thayer in a great big hug, her supporters calling themselves “Team Alex.” Currently on the Kittery Animal Hospital’s outdoor sign, it reads, “She fights, we fight. Team Alex.” On Saturday, March 2, coworkers and friends will host a benefit at the Portsmouth Harbor Events Conference Center featuring a silent auction, food and live music, to ease the financial burden of Thayer’s unexpected diagnosis.
[‘No road map’: Maine family copes with rare diagnosis]
At the Feb. 11 Kittery Town Council meeting, Councilor Charles Denault challenged his fellow councilors to donate their quarterly pay to the cause.
In December, Thayer first saw a doctor complaining of abdominal swelling and discomfort. Following an MRI, she was told she had a “very large cyst” stemming from one of her ovaries. She underwent surgery to remove it, and “right after, they knew it was cancer,” Thayer said. The cyst had weighed 16 pounds, and was determined to be a cancerous tumor.
Thayer is now undergoing six sessions of chemotherapy every three weeks. But she’s still working, taking care of herself, and remaining as active as possible.
“The first oncologist said it was pretty abnormal for someone this young to get ovarian cancer,” Thayer said. “They’re running some genetic testing to find out more.”
Thayer and her family are in the process of navigating the pains and intricacies of health insurance, weighing the pros and cons of insurance offered by the animal hospital, versus one that might provide better coverage for her treatments.
“It’s more than looking at monthly cost,” said Jen Thayer, Alex’s mom. “It’s co-pays, deductibles. You have to weigh it all out. One bill can just knock you out flat. With something that is so intense, it requires all of your focus.”
[Maine boy one of 12 humans known to have rare genetic disorder]
Jen Thayer said dealing with financials in the midst of a medical crisis “can wake you up in the middle of the night.”
“It has been a whirlwind,” she said.
Co-worker and friend Christine Morse is organizing the March 2 benefit. The impetus for the fundraiser was the idea that, ”(Money) should be the last thing she should worry about right now,” Morse said.
Just after Thayer’s diagnosis, working with so many clients on a day-to-day basis at her job, she was concerned about having to tell each person individually, on top of losing her hair.
“Knowing I was going to lose my hair was the hardest pill to swallow,” she said. “I have had long hair my whole life, it’s been a part of who I am. I took a few weeks to come to terms with it and shaved all my hair off to prepare myself for when it started falling out. That has made it much easier.”
Morse said to Thayer, “Let’s just rip (your diagnosis) off like a Band-Aid and throw it out there.” The animal hospital went public with it, and since, “It’s been amazing,” Morse said. “I still can’t believe what’s happening right now.” A GoFundMe page has raised more than $5,000.
[Cancer in America is way down, for the wealthy anyway]
“I love her, she’s like a sister,” Morse added. “To try to do something to help her, knowing insurance was a huge thing, and she just bought a house on her own. It was just a tornado. This couldn’t have happened at a worst time for Alex.”
Jen Thayer said going public with her daughter’s diagnosis has also brought them a wealth of information they likely wouldn’t have had otherwise.
“Having made it public makes it easier to talk about, and it’s OK to talk about it,” Jen Thayer said. “It shouldn’t be a shameful thing. I feel for people that don’t have that sort of support. Our community is wonderful. The Kittery Animal Hospital has been incredible.”
At the March 2 benefit, the Grim Brothers Band, featuring Thayer’s brother on the drums, will provide the live entertainment. Morse said the biggest item in the silent auction so far is a paddleboard donated by the Kittery Trading Post at a $2,000 value. All of the restaurants in town have donated gift cards, she said, and the donations continue to pour in. Tickets are $15 at the door, and the event starts at 6 p.m.
“I can’t describe the support from the community,” Thayer said. “It’s unbelievable. I’ve had people I don’t even know come to me and say, ‘I went through this, let me know if you need support.’”
Thayer added, “You have to stay positive, you have to take care of yourself.”