Fans Show Love For Nightbirde with Donations
- Nightbirde, the 30-year-old singer born Jane Marczewski, has raised $700,000 from fans after leaving America’s Got Talent as she battles metastatic breast cancer.
- “Since my audition, my health has taken a turn for the worse and the fight with cancer is demanding all of my energy and attention,” she wrote earlier this month.
- Metastatic breast cancer also called "stage four" breast cancer means that the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body.
The America’s Got Talent chanteusse is now getting that love back in a big way after announcing she would be withdrawing from the final rounds of the NBC reality show because her cancer had spread to her liver and lungs.
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Nightbirde Cancer Battle Inspires Thousands to Donate
The biggest of these fundraisers was created by Nightbirde herself back in January, three months before she auditioned to appear on AGT in Los Angeles.
“I believe my story is far from over, and I just need a little more to get through to the other side. I love you, and thank you for being heroes in my story,” wrote Nightbirde on her Go Fund Me page.
This also marked the first time Nightbirde used the phrase that many now associate with her cancer battle, #SeeJaneWin.
She had raised about $100,000 before appearing on the show, far exceeding her $30,000 goal.
That amount then doubled to $250,000 by early August, before surging again in an even bigger way when she announced she would be leaving AGT.
As of Monday morning, the donations to Nightbirde on that page totaled $522,279.
Budget Suites of America hotel owner Bobby Bigelow ($25,000), former Fox executive David Hill ($5,000) and a number of executives and entrepreneurs in the medical field including Randy Theken ($10,000) and Jason Schulz ($2500) are among the biggest contributors.
A second fundraiser created by Nightbirde’s pastor brother Mitch in January had the goal of raising $100,000.
He wrote: “With traditional chemotherapy treatment the doctors are hopeful they can extend Jane's life by up to 3 1/2yrs…If Jane cannot afford treatment of any kind then Jane has been told she has 3-6 months to live.” That Go Fund Me has received donations totaling $129,334 as of Monday morning.
The third and final campaign was setup by Jane’s friend in 2017. The Go Fund Me said that she and now ex-husband Jeremy were looking to by a house and settle down as she began chemo to beat the cancer. In the end, that fundraiser netted far lass than the other two but still surpassed it goal by bringing in a very impressive $20,247.
Nightbirde has also been accepting Paypal and Venmo donations and sellingapparel to help fund her treatment.
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Nightbirde Battles Cancer for the Fourth Time
Nightbirde devastated fans when she announced she would be leaving AGT earlier this month.
“Since my audition, my health has taken a turn for the worse and the fight with cancer is demanding all of my energy and attention. I am so sad to announce that I won't be able to continue forward on this season of AGT,” she wrote on her Instagram.
“Life doesn't always give breaks to those that deserve itbut we knew that already.”
That message also included a photo of Nightbirde showing her freshly shaved head.
The 30-year-old singer then had a message for her fans.
“Thank you for all your support, it means the world to me,” wrote the singer. “Stay with me, I'll be better soon. I'm planning my future, not my legacy. Yeah, I'm pretty beat up, but I've still got dreams.”
Representatives for America’s Got Talent told the contestant: “We're keeping you in our thoughts for a full recovery!”
Producers then welcomed Nightbirde back on the show last week, where he received words of praise and encouragement from the four judges and host Terry Crews.
Related: Brave siblings, 7 and 2, Fight Back After Both Are Diagnosed With Childhood Cancer
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Nightbirde’s Cancer Journey
The young talent has had a meteoric rise since she first appeared on America’s Got Talent, and has drawn the attention of Selma Blair, American Idol alum Melinda Doolittle, Terry Crews and even Madonna’s longtime manager Guy Oseary, who noted how impressed he was with her singing.
The singer earned a Golden Buzzer for her performance in June and then watched as the song she performed soared up the digital singles chart, eventually reaching the number three spot in less than 24 hours.
Nightbirde said that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, stating in a number of interviews that she got the news in September of that year while living in Nashville with her then-husband. In the months that followed she underwent chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
She was soon cancer-free and remained that way until New Year’s Eve 2019, when she says the breast cancer returned and doctors gave her just a few months to live. She was cancer-free by April.
That continued until she she posted a message in January of this year saying the cancer had returned.
“This spring, I experienced a true miracle. Hundreds of tumors died in my body, after being given 3-6 months to live. It was a whirlwind of a year, and my friends, family, and fans gave tens of thousands of dollars for a treatment that saved my life. But it turns out that my journey wasn't quite over,” wrote Nightbirde.
“Late summer after the finalization of my divorce and months after my cancer free report, I suffered a catatonic mental breakdown, and I barely spoke, ate, or moved from bed for several months. With help from the specialists here, we discovered that the events of this year had caused a physical head trauma. My brain was sending false signals of excruciating pain, and my brain's ability to process stress and emotion was functioning at just 8%.”
She continued: “With some brain wave therapy, I have made some huge strides and consider myself extremely lucky to have found the help I did. (Again, able to afford it with the money you gave!) But all of this took a tremendous toll on my body, and some of the cancer has grown back.”
She improved enough to compete on AGT in April at the auditions, but could not make it for the final rounds when her health took a turn.
Understanding Metastatic Breast Cancer
Metastatic breast cancer also called "stage four" breast cancer means that the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the breasts to other parts of the body. It most commonly spreads to the bones, liver and lungs, but it may also spread to the brain or other organs, according to the American Cancer Society.
When Breast Cancer Spreads to the Bones
And while there is technically no cure for metastatic breast cancer, there are a wide variety of treatment options used to battle the disease including hormone therapy, chemotherapy, targeted drugs, immunotherapy and a combination of various treatments.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, an oncologist with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, explained how she tries to manage breast cancer when its progressed to a later stage.
"With advanced disease, the goal of treatment is to keep you as stable as possible, slow the tumor growth and improve your quality of life," she said.
Breast cancer may be the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer, but there are so many breast cancer survivors and people living with the disease today. The American Cancer Society reports that there were more than 3.8 million U.S. women with a history of breast cancer alive at the start of 2019. Some of the women were cancer-free, and others still had evidence of the disease, but they also reported that more than 150,000 breast cancer survivors were living with metastatic disease, three-fourths of whom were originally diagnosed with stage I-III. And with ongoing advancements in treatments and options out there today that can dramatically reduce systems, there are many reasons to be hopeful.
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