Church raises over $10k for mother battling cancer

Katie Bourg’s brain cancer diagnosis has caused significant financial strain on her family – a strain that is a little over $10,000 less of a burden after a Dec. 18 jambalaya fundraiser held by St. Charles Borromeo in Destrehan.

“Thank you for saying yes,” fundraiser organizer Brandon Hebert said to supporters after the event. “It’s easy to see these types of events and let someone else give their time and money. You are what makes this world beautiful and gives others hope in times of despair. Many of you have never met this wonderful couple, yet your generosity and love poured out nonetheless. Now we continue our work through prayers for healing.”

Katie and her husband Jameson have been active participants in the St. Charles Borromeo ACTS family for the past four years, as Jameson has served as the leader of the Men’s ACTS music ministry and has been active in every retreat since 2016.

This year Katie was diagnosed with Grade IV glioblastoma.

“The level of support and care has just been … it’s just absolutely what keeps me thriving and keeps my spirit up,” Katie said. “It means so much to be kept in everyone’s hearts and minds. It keeps my positivity going, and that’s everything to me to stay positive. I feel like the days I feel my best are the days I’m the most positive.”

After the summer of 2020 brought 10 straight days of migraines so bad that they kept her in bed, Katie went in for a scan. Two days later she had surgery to remove a 3 cm tumor, and then had to wait weeks for the startling diagnosis.

“It was total shock because the weeks between my surgery and the diagnosis I was really feeling like I was doing well,” she said. “I felt very cognitively well, and we felt good. It was a total shock.”

The diagnosis was Grade IV glioblastoma. Katie will continue her chemo routine for a year.

“We always say, ‘Keep on keeping on’ – it’s absolutely how I greet each day,” she said. “What is most important to me is to see the good and care in others in really trying times – that people are not giving up their kindness, they’re not giving up the things that make the world special even though this year has been tremendously hard on everyone.”

Katie said Jameson, as well as her children Ronan and Ginny, have been an extraordinary support system.

“I wouldn’t be alive without him,” she said of Jameson. “He is absolutely the best thing that I could have ever asked for.”