Our Story
Our family created the Kelly Randel Foundation to honor the memory of Kelly Randel who passed away on December 4, 2020 after a 21 month battle with breast cancer, at the age of 26.
Her story began on March 9, 2019, Kelly, found a 3 cm mass on her breast after getting out of the shower. Immediately, Kelly scheduled an appointment for the doctor that week to get it examined. On March 15, 2019, after many tests, Kelly received the heart-wrenching news that she had a diagnosis of Triple Negative Breast Cancer. In just 6 days, everything changed for Kelly and our family. This news was very shocking to our whole family, as Kelly was only 24 years old. A few months prior to receiving this news, Kelly’s mom took a gene test to determine if she was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene mutation, which runs on her side of the family. She received the results two weeks prior to Kelly's diagnosis. The gene test confirmed Kelly’s mom was indeed a carrier of the gene. Women who inherit the BRCA1 gene mutation run a much greater risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Kelly later took the same gene test, confirming that she also inherited the BRCA1 gene mutation. The oncologist informed us that the cancer was very fast-growing and action needed to be taken immediately.
Despite going through this difficult time, Kelly thought about helping others instead of herself. After her diagnosis, she was given a list of day-to-day items needed for the side effects of her chemo treatments. Kelly came up with the idea of creating “Baskets for Breasties”, gift baskets that are donated to newly diagnosed cancer patients. It brought her so much joy to be able to donate these baskets. She donated over 100 baskets and now our family will carry on her vision.