Police In Long Valley Fundraise For Breast Cancer Awareness

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Members of the Washington Township police department have put down their razors once more this year and are sporting beards and mustaches for a good cause: to show their support for cancer patients.

The Washington Township Police Department announced that they are continuing their "No Shave November" campaign, as a way to help raise money for a local cancer patient.

Nicole Papa, according to police, grew up in Hackettstown and has always been involved with and supported the local first responders. Papa is the sister of a Mount Olive Police Officer and works as a nurse in the community.

This past July, Papa was diagnosed with stage two Triple Negative breast cancer (TNBC). The first step in her journey, according to the GoFundMe page set up in her name, was surgery on Aug. 18 to remove the tumor and several lymph nodes.

Although the initial pathology reports were encouraging, the cancer spread and tripled in size in just six weeks. Papa's chemotherapy treatment is not anticipated to be completed until Spring 2023.

"It’s not going to be easy, and Nicole still has a long road ahead of her, but we’re trying to reduce her worries while she’s recuperating so that she can focus on her 10-year-old son, Chase and her family," the GoFundMe said.

As of right now, the fundraising page has raised a total of $22,910, which is only around $3,000 away from reaching its goal.

"We are donating to Nicole’s GoFundMe directly to assist her during this horrible journey she has been set on," police said.