BUTLER TWP — After months of chemotherapy followed by a mastectomy and radiation treatments in 2016, Christa Baideme and her doctors thought she won her battle against inflammatory breast cancer.

Then, in October, a case of bronchitis required the 45-year-old Butler Township woman to have an X-ray that revealed she had lung cancer.

Around that same time, the source of the vision problems she was experiencing was diagnosed as brain cancer.

Her friends and family are helping Baideme raise $5,000 to help pay for her prescriptions and living expenses through a “Caring for Christa” campaign on RedBasket.org.

After living in Edinboro for 20 years, Baideme and her son, Braden, moved into her parents' house in 2015, after he graduated from high school.

With a degree in biology she landed a job in a urologist's office and planned to start looking for a home of her own.

About three months later, Baideme said she went to see a doctor due to some pain she was feeling and was told she had inflammatory breast cancer.

She started chemotherapy three days later.

“They weren't messing around,” Baideme said about her doctors.

Her treatments increased from one every three weeks for 12 weeks to once a week for the next 12 weeks, ending in August 2016.

In September she had a left side mastectomy and 13 lymph nodes were also removed during the surgery.

Through November and December of 2016 she said she underwent 33 radiation treatments.

She and her doctors thought she had prevailed.

“They told me I had no evidence of disease at that point,” Baideme said.

Then a bout of bronchitis struck in October of 2017. She said her doctor ordered X-rays, which found nodules in her lungs. A biopsy revealed they were cancerous.

“That's when they determined the breast cancer had metastasized,” Baideme said.

Vision problems also surfaced.

“They did an MRI. They found multiple lesions in my brain,” she said.

On Oct. 31 she started radiation therapy consisting of 10 whole head treatments, Baideme said.

“I love my doctors. They don't waste time,” she said.

At a doctor's appointment last Wednesday she learned that she was accepted into a clinical trial that includes more chemotherapy starting on Thursday, which is the last day to donate to her RedBasket fund.

The trial will continue “until they find a cure,” Baideme said.

Cancer, surgery, radiation treatments and chemotherapy can take a toll on patients and their families, but Baideme and her family battle back with the positive attitude and humor that has always kept them close.

“There's no cure for what I have. They can only treat it, but I told my doctor I was going to be his miracle so I told him to get cracking on it,” said Baideme, who is still suffering from the bronchitis.

Her parents, Waid and Leslie George, let her use some of her home furnishings in their home to help her and Braden feel more comfortable. Braden visits from Thiel College where he is majoring in fine arts and is a member of the football team.

“I have a whole wing,” Baideme said about where she stays in the house.

“The hardest decision was getting her a dog,” said Waid, a retired truck driver.

Leslie said they try to make life normal for their daughter.

Baideme has a persistent cough and is tired most of the time, but she said she feels pretty good.

“The motto in this house is 'power through,'” she said.

“It's a hiccup,” Waid said. “We're going to get through this.” Baideme's friends held a benefit in which food and money was donated in early December.

“I was just floored,” she said.

Friends, family and area businesses are selling tickets for a fundraiser for Baideme. The three prizes are a stay at a resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a stay at a lake house at Pymatuning Lake and $500. The drawing is Feb. 14.

“The generosity has just poured out,” Baideme said. “I didn't know so many people liked me. It's humbling.”