Florida Woman With Cancer Fundraising to Buy a Home Says Kindness of Strangers Is ‘Overwhelming’

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, Beth Bourdon is hoping a crowdfunding campaign will help her achieve a longtime dream while she still has time.

The 53-year-old Orlando woman's GoFundMe page, launched on Monday, seeks to collect $41,720 to help her break her lease and put a down payment on a home she can call her own.

By Friday, the contributions had already surpassed $19,000, which she has already used to pay off debt on three credit cards, with two more to go.

"The kindness and thoughtfulness of strangers is overwhelming," she tells The Messenger, "and it makes me cry."

Bourdon says she's been "chipping away at debt with a goal of buying a home" since 2022.

"I will continue to do that until the debt is gone and I have bought a house, or cancer kills me."

A public defender since 2005, Bourdon and has over 73,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, where she tweets about legal issues and politics.

While she has had success, she has also faced financial setbacks, such as an unsuccessful attempt to launch her own firm.

With mounting debt, Bourdon says she was making headway on paying down her credit cards just before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2023.

In the weeks that followed, she underwent a biopsy and multiple surgeries, including a bilateral mastectomy on Oct. 9.

She ran into other setbacks, such as developing necrosis around the incision site, which required a separate surgery.

At the start of 2024, with a credit card debt of around $39,800, Bourdan decided to open up about her story and create the crowdfunding campaign.

In an update on the GoFundMe page, Bourdan said she had been eyeing a $352,000 property near her doctor.

"I'm extremely grateful to those who have donated to help me," she says. "I'm also extremely grateful to those who keep me in their prayers."

The campaign, she says, will not only allow her to buy a home and retire in the coming years but also help her hold on to a bit of happiness during a challenging time in her life.

"Throughout all of this, I didn't realize how tightly wound I was," Bourdan, who has a family history of breast cancer, tells The Messenger. "You don't realize your body is actually vibrating or buzzing from stress until that lessens."

"The people who have donated have eased some of the stress off me," she adds.

Nearly 300 people have donated, with the largest individual contribution topping $5,000.

But after launching the GoFundMe page, Bourdan says she was met with some negative reaction and coverage, which made her feel as if "people just want to make fun of me."

While some have criticized the idea of asking strangers to help buy a home, Bourdon says her campaign falls under the GoFundMe's "Wish" category, where people can submit fundraisers for a variety of reasons, such as paying travel expenses, funding special birthday parties or buying TVs.

Bourdon's is also not the only fundraiser set up to help buy a home.

Of course, people can choose whether or not to donate, says Bourdon, who is grateful for the financial assistance from those who have pitched in so far.

"I have difficulty falling asleep, and I don't stay asleep," Bourdon explains. "Everyone who has helped me either through a donation or a kind word helps take away a little bit of stress."

She says she is now "in the best spot I've been in since June" and sleeping better than she has in a long time.

"I can't put a price on the relief all these wonderful people have granted me," she says.

Bourdan will likely have a follow-up operation in the next few weeks — either in late February or early March, she says — and she hopes to be even closer to her dream of buying that house.

"People claim there's not enough good people in the world, and that's simply untrue, and I can attest to that," Bourdan says.

"Perhaps they should try putting more good into the world to see what they get from the world in return."