Emily Progin, Content Manager
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Release: Immediate
$26,000 RAISED TO HELP PHILLY WOMAN FIGHT CANCER
Emily Nussdorfer: “Your Donations and Support Took My Breath Away”
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—In January 2025, as many celebrated the start of a new year, Emily Nussdorfer started chemotherapy. Living with ovarian cancer, the therapist and writer has received an outpouring of support on her journey: $26,000 has been raised in her honor with the nonprofit Help Hope Live to help with the cancer-related costs insurance doesn’t cover.
Blindsided by an ovarian cancer diagnosis at age 59, Emily started 2025 with plans for intensive treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery. Because she is self-employed as a trauma therapist, mindfulness practitioner, and dance-movement therapist, her treatment plans to fight cancer have included an extreme financial burden that she can’t meet alone.
That’s why Emily turned to the medical fundraising nonprofit Help Hope Live 7 months ago. Headquartered in Radnor, PA, the nonprofit serves individuals like her in all 50 states who are facing a sudden medical crisis and associated costs.
The response from her community was immediate. “Your donations and support took my breath away,” she posted on her fundraising page. “I feel a level of love I have never felt before in my life.”
Thanks to the funds raised in her honor, Emily has been able to pursue every treatment pathway available to her: “Because of you, I have been able to pay for prescriptions, supplements, appointments, co-pays, acupuncture, and more while unable to work.”
Her medical team says, “My prognosis is very good.”
Support from the Philadelphia community has included not just financial help but also words of encouragement, caregiving, and more.
“I cannot tell you how incredibly grateful I am to each and every one of you,” shared Emily. “The funding is helping me tremendously during this intricate time of treatment, while I am still recovering from surgery with more treatments to come.”
Most recently, Emily completed her 7th round of chemotherapy. She is now dealing with deep exhaustion and neuropathy, which is a painful side effect of the treatment. Her body is also susceptible to dangerous complications along the way: she recently had to endure a hospital stay due to a respiratory infection.
Knowing that she still has the capacity to give even as she receives help herself, Emily has continued to support her client community in their recovery from psychological trauma. Her medical team is now advising her to work as little as possible to allow her body to recovery—a tough ask for someone like Emily as she remains dedicated to her clients and giving back.
In between medical treatments, she’s been writing a children’s book about a young girl’s strength and courage in facing her fears – with the help of a few “magical allies.”
Unlike a GoFundMe campaign, donations to Help Hope Live are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, and all funds raised will be administered by the nonprofit to cover verified medical and related expenses. Help Hope Live verifies medical and financial need for every patient.
Help Hope Live is a national nonprofit that specializes in engaging communities in secure, tax-deductible fundraising campaigns for people who need a transplant or are affected by a catastrophic injury or illness. Since 1983, campaigns organized by Help Hope Live have raised over $188 million to pay patient expenses. ###
