Story of Courage: Kristy Kellick’s Lung Cancer Journey
Courage has no single ribbon. For Kristy Kellick, it is iridescent white, a symbol of lung cancer awareness and a journey that has changed her life.
As part of our Stories of Courage series, Ladies In The Outdoors and Dolls and Does Collective honors Kristy, an outdoorswoman who continues facing lung cancer while living with lupus. Her story is one of searching for answers, enduring difficult treatments and using her voice to help others.
Searching for Answers
Kristy became sick in December 2020. Her illness took her away from the woods she loved and into a long search for an explanation.
For more than a year, she continued seeking answers while feeling that her concerns were not being heard. Living with illness was difficult enough. Not knowing what was wrong added another burden.
On April 11, 2022, Kristy finally received her diagnosis: lung cancer.
The uncertainty now had a name, but her treatment journey was only beginning.
Six Lines of Treatment and Hope for Another Option
More than four years after her diagnosis, Kristy is still fighting.
She has endured six different lines of treatment, each bringing different side effects and affecting her body in a new way. If her doctors can find another chemotherapy option, it will become her seventh line of treatment.
Kristy also lives with lupus, which has made an already difficult journey more complicated. Her body has reacted poorly to several treatments, adding further challenges as she and her doctors consider what comes next.
Through the treatments, setbacks and uncertainty, she continues searching for another option and holding on to hope.
Helping Others Understand Lung Cancer
Part of Kristy’s mission is raising awareness that people who have never smoked can also develop lung cancer. Radon and asbestos exposure are among its recognized risk factors. These are general risk factors, not an explanation of what caused Kristy’s cancer.
By sharing her experience, Kristy is helping others look beyond assumptions and recognize the person living with the diagnosis.
Every person facing lung cancer deserves compassion, support and the opportunity to be heard.
An Outdoorswoman Whose Voice Still Matters
Illness took Kristy away from the woods she loved. For someone who found joy in being outdoors, that loss is another part of what cancer has taken from her daily life.
But it has not silenced her voice.
Her willingness to speak about years of uncertainty, difficult treatments and the hope for another option gives our community a chance to listen, learn and stand beside her.
Kristy’s story belongs in Stories of Courage because courage includes continuing through days when the answers are uncertain and the next step is still unknown.
Standing Beside Kristy Kellick
Kristy, thank you for trusting Ladies In The Outdoors and Dolls and Does Collective with your journey.
We are surrounding you with love, encouragement and prayers for another treatment option, for comfort through the difficult days and for the strength to keep facing each day.
NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE.
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