Benefit to be held for blind Minneapolis mother fighting MS, breast cancer

It's hard enough to be blind and battling Multiple Sclerosis, but now a Minneapolis woman has to take on another fight with breast cancer.

DeGalynn Sanders is a two-time beauty queen, crowned both Ms. and Ms. Black Minnesota as well as second runner-up Ms. Black USA. She also graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School and worked as an attorney for legal aid.

But now she is legally blind. And after coming down with an M.S. type illness nearly a decade ago and beating breast cancer, she learned the cancer came back and spread to her liver and bones. She's spent her life helping others, but now is accepting help from her family and friends.

While she has good insurance, all the doctors appointments and medicines she needs are putting a financial strain on her family. Not only can she not work, but her husband, who's an attorney for General Mills, started driving for Uber in his spare time to make the extra $2,000 to $3,000 they need to pay each month.

"How much would you pay for one more Christmas? One more birthday? This is really the fight that we are in for and we want to do everything we can to give her that," her husband Lance said.

And with a little help, DeGalynn hopes she'll be able to write her own happy ending.

"I have to be cancer-free. It just has to happen because I have two children. And I need to live for them and I will live for them. I just need the support of all my family and friends to make it happen because it will happen," DeGalynn said.

Friends, family and well-known Minnesota musicians are stepping up to help lift her spirits and to help defray the mounting medical and related expenses. A benefit fundraiser event for DeGalynn will take place on Wednesday at Pepito's Cantina in south Minneapolis from 5:30 p.m. until approximately 10 p.m.