Meet Tina Lorch
Meet Tina Lorch
The chances of being diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma- an aggressive and rare cancer that constitutes just one percent of all adult cancers- are slim, but not for Tina Lorch.
Tina was born and raised in Ventura County with her twin sister Tammy and her brothers Tony and Tim. She was very active growing up, becoming a member of the Oxnard High School swim team. She later took her swimming skills to UC Davis, became an All-American, completed her degree in Child Development, and met her husband Kevin.
Upon graduation, Tina decided to become a Kindergarten teacher. She devoted the next thirty-five years to students and families in the greater Thousand Oaks area, leaving a lasting impact on all those she taught.
The time flew by, and in June of 2022 Tina’s time teaching came to an end. She had dedicated so much time giving to others that it was time to give to herself. Her first year of retirement was care-free, spending time with her husband and two sons- Michael and Danny- e-biking, hiking, swimming, and going back to building creative pieces with clay.
Then in April of 2023, Tina had a strange feeling that something wasn’t right. “I know when something is wrong with my body,” she said, “so I went to my primary care doctor to get checked out.” Her doctor believed that maybe she slept funny or pulled a muscle. Over the next few months, Tina began losing weight and experiencing intermittent pain. Returning to her doctor, she insisted that something was wrong and following an ultrasound, he agreed.
After learning there would be weeks of delays between scans, a biopsy, and a diagnosis, Tina took the bull by the horns. “I drove myself to the hospital and checked myself into the ER to get a scan performed immediately. My doctor referred a surgeon to discuss my results, and he said that what they found in my right abdomen looked cancerous.”
It was July of 2023, and Tina Lorch’s life changed forever when she received a diagnosis of Leiomyosarcoma. This rare beast would continue to impact the smooth muscles around her many organs on the right side of her abdomen: liver, kidney, gallbladder. Because this cancer does not impact organs themselves at first, this type of sarcoma can grow quite large before diagnosis without any symptoms. Unfortunately, this was the case for Tina.
Tina knew she had to move quickly and start treatment immediately. She did some research and found City of Hope in Duarte, California. Within 24 hours of calling them, Tina drove herself and a CD of her scans to their facility, and they scheduled an appointment the next day. Tina began her chemotherapy journey in August of 2023 to subdue the growing tumor.
While chemotherapy has kept it stable, Tina and her doctors hope to shrink the tumor by at least 20% in order to perform surgery to remove it. There have been concerns and complications along the way, but Tina and her team remain hopeful through the support of all of those around her.
Every three weeks Tina makes the trek to Duarte and stays at a hotel on their campus during the three nights between treatments. She sports an upbeat attitude as well as her Team Tina shirt or something orange- which is her favorite color- for good luck.
While insurance has been on her side for the journey thus far, Tina is paying quite a bit out of pocket to make her commute to Durate twice a month, paying for lodging and food while there. While Tina is going through this challenging time, we hope to alleviate some of the stress and burden off of her shoulders so she can focus on getting better. We are so excited to announce Tina as one of our 7th Annual Crawfish Boil recipients.
