I wanted to share something I wrote this time last year, before the fight to clean up of one of America’s worst nuclear meltdowns, the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL), really began. This was when we had few resources and I was isolated from my family and community as I focused on caring for my daughter Grace in the bone marrow ward at our children’s hospital.

November 28, 2017

“Its 1am and don’t know if I’m depressed or just numb. I feel like the last 26 days living with my 7yo daughter at the hospital has been 1 day on repeat; waking up through the night to see her vomiting. Watching the nurses refill her morphine all night long. Finding the strength to comfort her when she’s crying because everything hurts. Watching her claw at her hands and feet because the itching from her rashes never fully goes away. Watching her gag at the thought of food and dry heave until the nurses come with more meds. Every day. Every night.

And then today as I ate my cold microwave dinner in the parent kitchen I met a mom whose seven month-old son has a brain tumor. I just didn’t have the heart to tell her she’s my neighbor in real life. That she lives within fifteen miles of a nuclear meltdown near our homes... I am empty. So this is a final plea. I’ve been trying to fight Boeing to get them to clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab. I’m asking for help. If you have any fight in you, please help.”

It’s painful for me to re-read that. Last year I had little hope for the cleanup actually happening, and I was so fearful for my daughter’s life. But this year life is completely different. We’ve become a team and a stronger community. We know what needs to happen for the cleanup and how to get there. And because of your support and generosity:

• Half a million people have joined this movement.
• We stopped the City of Simi Valley from using SSFL contaminated groundwater for drinking water.
• We’ve had dozens of rallies and protests.
• We stopped the City of Los Angeles’ from building hiking trails that would have led unsuspecting hikers dangerously close to radioactive and chemical waste at the SSFL.
• We’ve sent tens of thousands of tweets.
• We’ve started soil sampling to find out if contamination from the SSFL reached our community during the Woolsey fire.
• We’ve met with Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff in Sacramento.
• We have giant banners that we hang during 101 freeway rush-hour in Los Angeles.
• We’ve passed out hundreds of flyers and posters.
• We’ve informed our community by participating in TONS of news articles, radio shows, and news segments.
• We’ve gotten a LOT done, and that’s directly because of you! And we have so many more plans for this next year to finally get the cleanup our children need.

We want to start out next year running. Would you consider making a donation today so that can happen?

We’re so close to victory, so close to protecting my community’s children from thyroid conditions, autoimmune diseases and even cancer… like my daughter and 50 other kids have already fought.

We need your help to continue our fight. Can you help?

P.S. Gracie is still cancer free! She’ll be celebrating her birthday at home in a few days, and compared to her hospital birthday last year, she’s so much happier, SO much healthier!