Dear Friends, Family, and Community Members,

I am reaching out with a heartfelt request for support to help my daughter, Rachel Shur, receive medically necessary dental implants that are critical to improving her quality of life. No health insurance will cover the rehabilitation of her jawbone and new implants that will restore her beautiful smile. These are critical to improving her quality of life. 

In her daily life she speaks in public, on the radio, and meets with cancer patients as part of her nonprofit work with UCAAN (United Cancer Advocacy Action Network).  It is becoming increasingly embarrassing and difficult for her to speak to people she is trying to help.  All of the upper implant teeth, which had been placed in 2020, have broken off, leaving her with no way to fully smile.  The lower implants are still there but are problematic because they had been put in her jaw in a way that has allowed much of the bone to be lost.  Along with that, there are receding gums that are exposing the threads of the implant posts, allowing bacteria to enter and cause infection. Unfortunately, the money we had at that time was spent on this poor-quality dental work. 

She only has a few months leeway to begin the healing and implant process with a new team of medical professionals, and prevent more dangerous loss of the bone in her right lower jaw.  She and I have spent the last 5 years visiting the best dental professionals we could find in Los Angeles and Ventura County, trying to understand what happened to her implants from 2020 and why they started breaking after about three weeks.  We do not have anything close to the money required to do the proper dental work now – about $100,000.

Why was she left needing full mouth implants in the first place?  In 2006, Rachel came down with a terminal case of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, fought back twice to live and had an autologous stem-cell transplant. She has been healthy since then, but the massive doses of chemotherapy and radiation undermined the health of her teeth, which literally broke off and fell out one by one. 

Let me quote two of the medical professionals who worked with her through her recovery:

“Rachel had a very dangerous type of leukemia and for 3 – 4 weeks we didn’t know if she was going to make it out of ICU.  She did and when she woke up we found out why… She has an incredible fighting spirit and a love of life which she then turned into helping others make it through cancer.  I am proud to have been her doctor and happy to see this book come out.” – Dr. Pablo Parker, MD, City of Hope Medical Center.

“I first met Rachel when she was admitted into the hospital.  I was pretty sure she was at death’s door.  But Rachel was a fighter.  She fooled us all!  I believe that she wasn’t needed in heaven as much as she was needed here on earth to help cancer warriors.  And so began an amazing story by an amazing survivor.” – Lois Goodstein, RN, Discharge Planner.

We are humbly asking for your support to help cover these costs.  Any donation, no matter the size, will bring us closer to giving Rachel the opportunity to live a fuller, healthier, and happier life.  The medical professionals we will be using are two of the most highly respected and successful dental implant experts in this country.

If you’re able to contribute, please send donations and share this with others. We are also happy to provide more details about Rachel’s condition and will share improvements as they go along.  The reconstruction (rebuilding bone and tissue) and new implants will take about two years to complete.

Let’s take care of one who takes care of us.  That loving smile will help so much in allowing her to continue her recovery and consequently, the recovery of others with cancer, no matter what age or type of cancer they have – nationwide.

Jean Fordyce