Salem single mom with breast cancer gets help from nonprofit

Lisa Painter is a self-described clean freak who will lie in bed thinking of all the things she needs to do to keep up her home and care for her children as a single mom, if only she was able to muster the energy.

In August, Painter was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and immediately began treatment with one of the strongest chemotherapy drugs available, unflatteringly nicknamed the "Red Devil."

The powerful medication is known for severe side effects, and the mother of six soon became unable to work. When paired with the emotional weight of fighting cancer while parenting her children, it was an overwhelming time.

"(The diagnosis) took all my power away," she said.

This is where Andy McCandless and her nonprofit Michelle's Love stepped in.

Michelle's Love is a Portland-area nonprofit that provides assistance exclusively to single parents (mostly moms) going through cancer treatment, named in honor of McCandless' friend who died from cancer in 2005.

The support they offer comes in the forms of rent or mortgage and utilities payments, meal deliveries, gas cards, Christmas sponsorships and home cleanings, which is what brought McCandless and 11 volunteers to Painter's home Saturday morning.

Painter lives in Salem with three of her six children — ages 16, 20 and 22 — and her 3-month-old granddaughter.

Volunteers cleaned behind pictures hanging on the living room walls, scrubbed the tops of drawer faces in the kitchen, went at spots on the couch with stain remover and a toothbrush and took down Christmas lights hanging along the roof.

When they tried to mow Painter's lawn and discovered it was broken, they purchased a new lawnmower. They replaced lightbulbs and bought smoke detectors. A pair of volunteers spent an hour and a half cleaning one bathroom.

Sarah Daniel is a physician assistant with Oregon Oncology Specialists, a board member of Michelle's Love and one of the volunteers who helped clean Painter's home Saturday.

She said while paying rents, cleaning homes, making meals and doing miscellaneous chores aren't earthshattering efforts, they keep a cancer patient's life more stable while he or she focuses on healing.

"(Michelle's Love) truly helps people," she said. "They do the things that people need."

When Painter came back home, she teared up seeing her home returned to the spotless condition she envisioned.

Painter said she has a hard time accepting help, so used to relying on herself, particularly as a single parent. Now all she can think about is how to pay forward the support she's been given.

"After I get better, I want to volunteer and give back," she said. "I know how much this has meant for me. I want to make that difference for other moms."

Since its founding in 2012, Michelle's Love has helped more than 150 families, mostly in the Portland area, including 44 families last year to the tune of $125,820.

The nonprofit only expanded to working with parents in the Salem area in the past two years, in large part due to a local fundraiser that brought in $27,000 that McCandless committed to spending on Salem-area parents.

McCandless created a similar nonprofit in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving to Portland in 2011. She swore she wouldn't start doing this work again, but did anyway.

"It's hard. You're around a lot of death and sickness," she said. "But it's obviously a lot more rewarding than it is hard."

Painter knew Michelle's Love through her friend Autumn, who had received support from the nonprofit before she died in December 2020.

Painter became the fourth single mom in Salem to receive assistance from Michelle's Love when she and McCandless connected in September. Since then, McCandless' organization has covered Painter's rent, gave her $100 in gas cards and provided new brakes and rotors for her car.

Painter is now on her second round of chemo treatments, with eight weeks remaining. After that's complete, she will have surgery, and then five weeks of daily radiation treatments.

Michelle's Love will pay Painter's rent at least through March, and McCandless keeps in touch with each of the families she works with to check in on whatever they might need.

"It helps me to be able to sleep because I don't need to worry about where I'm going to be," Painter said. "I don't know what I would do without Michelle's Love."

Reporter Connor Radnovich covers the Oregon Legislature and state government. Contact him at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Nonprofit Michelle's Love supporting Salem single moms with cancer