Tess Fowler and her Friends Start a GoFundMe To Pay for Her Breast Cancer Treatment

Tess Fowler is a brilliant artist, with credits such as Michelle Obama #1, Doctor Strange, and Rat Queens. But she’s had to take a break from doing any comic work because of a slight inconvenience—breast cancer. Like many comic and entertainment creators, friends of hers turned to GoFundMe to help cover her monthly expenses. And, just as we rallied behind Dexter Vine, we want to rally Fowler’s GoFundMe campaign, which she’s calling “Tess Fowler Cancer is an ASSHOLE Relief Fund.” Yeah, she’s keeping her humor up.

Tess Fowler Already Reached Her First GoFundMe Goal. Let’s Help Her Get the Rest of the Way There!

(Image from TessFowler.Com)

In just three days, B Dave Walters, the GoFundMe Campaign organizer, raised $36,000 on behalf of Jess Fowler. “Thank you for this. Me and Chris,” Tess’s husband, “are so overwhelmed and grateful. It’s been such a terrifying time. This has made it look far less bleak. My gosh. Thank you soooo much,” Tess said in a tweet after they burst past their first goal. The success prompted Walters to increase the goal to $50,000. And every little bit helps immensely. As Walters says at the beginning of the campaign, “Folks, cancer is an asshole.  It takes and takes and takes and takes.”

What Tess is Facing While Battling Cancer

(Image from TessFowler.Com)

Fowler’s diagnosis is severe: HER2-positive breast cancer, which is a bit more rare and very aggressive. Tess and Chris “are staring down FOUR months of chemo, then surgery to have a double mastectomy, then THREE more months of chemo followed by another surgery for a hysterectomy,” Walters notes (emphasis his). The overhead for the surgeries and chemotherapy adds up to about $4,000 per month. But fighting cancer does not leave a lot of time for the patient or their spouse to work. And given out current times, it’s even harder to find work that doesn’t require public interaction. Chris can’t risk bringing COVID-19 back to Tess, so job options are even more limited.

How Contributing to the GoFundMe Stretch Goal Helps Tess Fowler

(Image from TessFowler.Com)

So, if the GoFundMe for Tess Fowler reached the first goal, why is it so important to reach that $50,000 mark? Two words: Unexpected Expenses. As a caretaker myself, I can say that just as much as cancer is an asshole, so are the finances and the math. Things happen—and when one thing goes wrong, say a flat tire or a busted pipe. One expense causes a domino expense of frustration and stress. The better the cushion, the less stress there is. And Fowler is a fighter. She was one of the first women in the industry to speak up about sexual harassment, and now she’s battling breast cancer. She’s a superhero, and with our help, she’ll be bringing superheroes to life again.

(Featured Image: Rat Queens, Image Comics)

Roman Colombo finished his MFA in 2010 and now teaches writing and graphic novel literature at various Philadelphia colleges. His first novel, Trading Saints for Sinners, was published in 2014. He's currently working on his next novel and hoping to find an agent soon.