Woman With Terminal Cancer Issues Plea For Christmas Cards

STAFFORD COUNTY, VA — A Stafford County woman with a rare form of cancer put out a plea on Facebook asking people around the world to help her celebrate the holidays by sending her a Christmas card. Jean Lee has battled cancer six times since 2003. But two years ago, the diagnosis became terminal.

Doctors are calling Lee's form of cancer undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. At the time of the diagnosis, doctors said she wouldn't survive longer than 18 months. Now, the cancer has spread to her heart and is inoperable, WJLA reported.

"This Christmas will be my first Christmas after my expiration date. Christmas 2018 my doctors thought I'd be dead or in hospice. I proved them wrong," Lee wrote in the Facebook post.

For Lee, the cards help with depression from the cancer diagnosis and treatment. "Sometimes it's a bright spot in a gloomy day," she told WJLA.

Lee is interested in receiving all types of holiday cards — Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah — from all over the world, with a note about somewhere great to visit in the area where the card came from. She said the cards will help her live vicariously through others. "I won't be able to visit those areas, the terminal cancer pretty much kills the budget, but I can Google them and dream," she wrote.

To send Lee a card, mail it to 431 Oakridge Drive, Stafford, VA 22556.