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UCISD teacher facing breast cancer


Melissa Federspill

Staff writer

It was a self exam that felt different that led Flores Middle School teacher Elizabeth Schreiber to go for a check up with her doctor, which revealed she had breast cancer.

“It is so important for my treatment that I acted as quickly as I did to get intervention,” Schreiber said.

While Schreiber teaches at Flores Middle School, her husband, Bryan Snyder, is also employed by Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District as the assistant band director at Uvalde High School.

They are both originally from San Antonio, where they went to high school together. After many years, they reconnected, and have two children. They have a combined seven years with the district.

“I wish I had been even faster in consulting a doctor,” Schreiber said. “My doctors acted quickly and started a plan as soon as they could.”

Schreiber’s diagnosis required surgery and probable chemotherapy.

Within the next six months, they will incur approximately $6,000 in additional health care costs, which come on top of the initial $2,000 up-front cost for her surgery.

“My husband, family, friends and medical professionals have been supportive throughout my surgery,” Schreiber said.

They have been traveling to San Antonio for follow-up appointments, and that will continue.

“The probable chemotherapy will happen in Uvalde,” Snyder said, “There will be additional doctors’ appointments in San Antonio in the coming months, regardless.

“The financial and emotional costs have both been significant,” said Snyder.

Schreiber will go without pay for six weeks. When her payroll insurance kicks in next week, it will pay $80 per day. Snyder says that amount is $270 less than she normally earns while at work.

To raise money for her surgery costs, they opened a Facebook fundraiser for a modest amount and were successful.

In a press release by U.S. Representative Will Hurd during last month’s breast cancer awareness campaign, he profiled the effects of breast cancer.

“According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Texas women, and nearly 18,000 Texas women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year,” read Hurd’s email. “In 2018, the cost of care for patients with breast cancer across the U.S. was an estimated $19,700,000, according to the National Cancer Institute.”

Some Uvalde High School band parents have taken on some fundraising efforts to help offset medical costs.

The first fundraiser was a bake sale held in October, which raised $600.

A second prize fundraiser is currently underway for a chance to win a barbecue pit donated by Texas Best Barbecue Pits valued at $425 along with a $25 gift card from Uvalde Meat Market on Nov. 13.

Tickets are $5 each, and can be purchased directly at Texas Best Barbecue Pits at 107 Goldbeck Street or from Katherine Zamarippa.

For more information or to contribute, contact Zamarippa at 830-333-3811.

 

 

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