Back on the Trail
How financial coaching helped Ashley recover
Photo by Mel Martin, Hopelink
Ashley starts a typical weekday by dropping her 13-year-old daughter off at school, and then she starts picking up dogs.
A self-employed dog walker since 2018, her route starts at South Cove and leads through Bellevue, picking up anywhere from five to nine dogs in her SUV. Ashley has a roster of longstanding clients and their dogs – including Golden- and Labradoodles, an Australian Shepherd, and a 150-pound Irish Wolfhound – that have formed a close bond since the pandemic.
“I’ll show up to their house, and they’re in the window waiting for me,” Ashley said. “They’re my buddies. I love them so much.”
“Client say the dogs perk up and get excited when they just hear her name.
Once the pack is assembled, Ashley typically drives to Magnuson Park where she lets them play for a couple of hours before piling back in the SUV and heading home.
“Dogs are therapeutic,” she says. “This job isn’t going to make me wealthy, but it makes me happy.”
These days, Ashley is proud of where she’s at. She’s made significant progress in her weight loss journey, grown her business, and with the help of Hopelink’s Financial Capabilities program, paid down thousands of dollars of credit card debt, raised her credit score by almost 100 points, and saved for a new SUV – all within about a year.
But that’s just the very tip of the iceberg in Ashley’s recent story. The hardest parts happened two years ago when a major health crisis changed everything.
Surviving an unthinkable crisis
Photo by Mel Martin, Hopelink
In May 2023, a string of hospital visits for puzzling symptoms came to a head when doctors discovered a brain mass (technically, a vestibular schwannoma) and a significant amount of fluid in Ashley’s brain. After a 10-hour surgery to remove the mass, and another procedure to install a shunt to drain the fluid, Ashley was only home for 20 minutes when the doctors called her back to the hospital. They spotted an acute pulmonary embolism on a recent scan, and Ashley was readmitted for another night.
The surgery left Ashley with facial paralysis, loss of hearing, and weakness on her left side. After returning home, she had in-home nurses and hours of physical therapy to help her relearn how to walk and other motor skills.
Though she was still recovering, Ashley didn’t want to scrap a special Vegas trip she had pre-planned with her daughter months before the surgery. “Everything was purchased at the nonrefundable rate, so we still went after the first brain surgery. I just got an electric wheelchair rental,” Ashley said. “I was like, ‘What if I die in a week?’… I just wanted to live as much as I could.”
After the vacation, Ashley started falling. She went back to the hospital, and a new scan showed her brain mass had grown back bigger than before. In July, Ashley had a second surgery that removed all but a small part of the mass.
Once out of the second surgery, Ashley could only whisper and couldn’t swallow. She was given a blood thinner for a clot in her sinuses, and in the following days she developed pneumonia and was readmitted to the hospital. Eight days after her second surgery, she finally stabilized and returned home.
Due to the aggressive nature of the mass, her doctors recommended proton radiation at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to target the remaining part. From October 23 to December 1, Ashley from her home in Factoria to Fred Hutch in North Seattle for a total of 28 radiation treatments.
“I was their 4,916th patient to finish proton radiation,” Ashley said. “I took home my mask and a coin, plus I got to ring the bell!”
The surgeries and radiation were successful. Now, only a small sliver of the non-cancerous mass remains, which is monitored by routine scans.
As a single mom without nearby family support, Ashley was used to being a “hyper-independent” person. “I had to kind of suck up my pride [and ask for] what I need,” she said. “You never anticipate a brain tumor. When you’re self-employed, you can’t get unemployment. You don’t get medical leave.”
Funds raised through a GoFundMe campaign, meal trains, help from Hopelink programs, and credit cards got Ashley through until her situation stabilized. In January 2024, she got right back to work to start chipping away at the debt accrued during her health crisis.
“Once I knew I was stable and going to survive, I was like, ‘Okay, I gotta get on track,'” Ashley said.
Moving from overwhelm to financial confidence
Photo by Mel Martin, Hopelink
Ashley felt overwhelmed by debt and sought help through Hopelink’s Financial Capabilities program. In April 2024, she started working one-on-one with Hopelink Financial Capabilities Manager Donna O’Connor.
Ashley’s spirit made an instant impression on O’Connor. “She had this light in her eyes where she was right at that point where she was really wanting to be doing this. She had a spark. She overcame a lot just to get into that room,” she said.
Clients start the six-month program by having a conversation with a financial coach in a safe, non-judgmental environment.
“Part of that is to allow it to come off the shoulders, get [their financial stress] off their head, to speak about things they haven’t been able to share, and it’s very freeing,” O’Connor said. “The situation is exactly the same as it was an hour ago, but they feel better because they unloaded it and had a space to sort through it.”
Financial coaching is different from working with a planner or advisor. O’Connor said clients define their goals and, “coaches working with their clients in many ways, just helping them regain that control and sense of confidence so they can start making their own decisions in ways that are best for themselves and their families.”
Ashley’s goals were to pay off about $9,000 of credit card debt spread over six credit cards, increase her credit score, and save for a new SUV. Her current vehicle was approaching the end of its life, and having a working vehicle to transport dogs was essential for her business.
Working with O’Connor, Ashley developed a plan to tackle multiple significant strides towards her goals. As of May 2025, Ashley had paid off about $7,000 of high-interest credit card debt, raised her credit score from 655 to 730, and recently bought a used Honda Pilot in great condition with a cash down payment and a small loan from a credit union.
“I wanted to keep working with Donna because I felt like she held me accountable,” Ashley said. “I was afraid that when I stopped working with her, I would make poor choices. I felt like I needed that accountability, but I just had to believe in myself, and I did good. Growing up, no one really talked to me about money or credit cards, so I learned the hard way. Donna is so kind, sweet, and non-judgmental, and like, ‘Okay, how can we do this?'”
Now, Ashley has two SUVs, the old one she still uses for work, and the new one for when the old one dies. She’s also proud of her weight loss journey, having lost a total of 167 pounds through both her own efforts and a weight loss surgery last year. She’s growing her business, rebuilding her savings, chipping away at the last remaining bit of credit card debt, and talking to her daughter about money.
Ashley looks forward to booking a vacation for the two of them again. She’s undecided on the destination, but knows it will be “some place warm.”
“In the past, I would go on a vacation and use my credit cards, but now I want to save the money and then go. I want to do it right.”