Benefit on June 23 supports Albion mom fighting breast cancer
Provided photos: Megan Gotte is pictured with her husband Jason, their sons – Jax, 7, and Leo, 5 – and their dog, Lila Rose.
Megan Gotte works as nurse, and is active with PTA
Megan Gotte is pictured on Mother’s Day, after about a month of enduring chemotherapy.
GAINES – Megan Gotte has proven her devotion to others in her job as a registered nurse for HCR Home Care. She tends to patients in their homes in Orleans and Genesee counties. She was featured in many news stories after a blizzard on March 12, 2014, when she rode a snowmobile to visit homebound patients.
Gotte and her husband Jason have two young sons and she has been a regular volunteering in their prekindergarten and first grade classrooms on Fridays. She is active in the Albion PTA and often spends four nights a week at Bullard Park for coach pitch and T-Ball.
However, Gotte’s life changed about two months ago when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Her friends are planning a June 23 basket raffle and benefit for the Gotte family at the Medina Theater. The event will be from 3 to 9 p.m.
“We love her,” said her friend, Amy Ainsworth-Herman, a nurse at HCR. “She would do the same for us.”
Gotte, 40, has been diagnosed with Stage 3B triple negative breast cancer. Her cancer started out the size of a marble and grew to 9.5 centimeters in three weeks.
She will continue with chemotherapy every week through August and then will have a double mastectomy, followed by five to six weeks of radiation.
She is determined to beat the disease, saying she has every reason to live with sons Jax, 7, and Leo, 5.
Gotte had long curly hair two months ago. She is adjusting to the side effects of chemotherapy.
She said she is thankful HCR has allowed her to do a reduced workload from home. She can’t visit patients right now, and her compromised immune system is keeping her out of her kids’ classrooms as a volunteer.
Her family and friends have stepped up to help care for her children and get her to medical appointments.
“I have awesome friends,” Gotte said on Tuesday at her home on Kent Road.
One of the items that will be at the benefit on June 23 includes a breast cancer awareness cleat signed by Kyle Williams of the Buffalo Bills.
Gotte first worked as a nurse at Medina Memorial Hospital and then joined HCR about five years ago. Two of her nursing friends, Colleen Herriven and Amy Ainsworth-Herman, have been working on the benefit on June 23. Besides baskets up for raffle, there will be food and music from deejay JT Thomas.
A Facebook event’s page lists many of the items that will be available at the raffle including a breast cancer awareness cleat signed by Kyle Williams of the Buffalo Bills and an autographed hockey stick from Zach Bogosian of the Buffalo Sabres.
A GoFundMe also has been established to support the Gotte family to help with out-of-pocket medical costs and other expenses.
Megan Gotte’s friends have also made #GotteStrong stickers and shirts to support the family.
