Maxine MacLennan is rallying Islanders to come together in the final weeks of her East End Girl Requests fundraiser to help a local woman battling stage four cancer.
Amber Jadis was diagnosed with aggressive stage three cancer in February, but that diagnosis was changed to stage four in March after MRI results showed signs of cancer in both breasts, lymph nodes and sternum.
Jadis is originally from Mount Stewart but now lives in Scotchfort with her husband, Jacob, and two children Ellen,7, and Clark,4.
She is a STEM professional, owning three businesses including Bricks 4 Kidz, coSolved Consulting and STEAM P.E.I. She is also a dedicated volunteer and is passionate about sharing her love for engineering with young people.
The East End Girl Requests Facebook group was formed last month by MacLennan, who is a P.E.I. singer/songwriter, to help Jadis financially as she undergoes chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and recovery.
Group members can nominate a singer they know to load a video performing a song, either of the singer’s or nominator’s choice, and then make a donation.
Helping out
Do you wish to make a donation to help Amber Jadis? E-transfers can be made to Jadis and her family at [email protected]. Cheques can be mailed to 40 Red Stone Drive, Mount Stewart, P.E.I., C0A 1T0.
The fundraiser is open until the end of April.
“We are hoping that people will really step up in the coming weeks and help out this family,” said MacLennan in an interview with The Guardian. “Amber is fighting for her life, and we want to make sure money is the last thing she has to worry about.”
MacLennan had been keeping her eye open for a way to pay it forward through the #BeccaToldMeTo movement and when she saw Jadis’ story on her newsfeed, she knew this was the “sign” she had been looking for.
“I don’t know her, I don’t know her family and I didn’t know the person that had shared it,” said MacLennan. “I just thought, ‘I have to start a fundraiser online for her’.”
MacLennan said with the help of Debbie Dixon Rogers, Roberta Clark and Beaudah VanWichen, along with the inspiration from Malcolm Pitre’s Christopher Cross Requests Facebook group, the fundraiser was launched.
MacLennan wrote a song called “Fiddler Girl”, which is about some of the anxiety and PTSD she had following a violent motor vehicle collision in November.
MacLennan posted the video and proceeded to put up a Facebook post explaining what she was doing and nominated her friend, Courtney Hogan-Chandler, to play a piece she wrote for her son, Finnegan Jack.
The page now boasts more than 130 videos.
“People have come out of the woodwork that we haven’t heard from in years or that we didn’t know could sing or play,” said MacLennan. “It’s been amazing.”
For more information, visit the East End Girl Requests Facebook group.
