A Utah mother with just three months to live is raising money for her own funeral after “silently fighting a rare terminal cancer” for two years.
Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, originally set a GoFundMe campaign goal of $5,000 to cover the cost of the future service, but more than 30,000 donors have since helped her raise $900,000 as of Sunday, Sept. 29 — with the rest of the donations intended to be put into a foundation for her two children.
As mom to Jeremiah, 7, and Aaliyah, 5, Erika called her children “a whole life” in the caption of the fundraiser, where she revealed in September that she had been battling small cell lung cancer for the past two years.
She was initially diagnosed with cancer on May 7, 2022, when she walked into the emergency room with what she thought was a “normal shoulder injury,” according to local ABC4 outlet and the single mother’s GoFundMe description. Now, she wrote, the doctor’s words are “reproduced” in her head: “I hope you have a good support system at home because you will need it, you have a long and hard road ahead of you.”
“The doctor then told me that there were multiple tumors that had metastasized to other parts of my body, including my skeleton, so we were able to find the tumor that was causing my shoulder pain,” Erika wrote. “By that point, the damage had already been done. In that moment, my entire life and that of my children changed forever, as did everyone around us.”
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Less than two years later, on January 17, 2024, Erika was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome, which the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases describes as a disorder caused when a person’s body “produces too much of the hormone cortisol over a long period of time.” According to the institute, only 40 to 70 people out of every million have Cushing’s disease.
“Then I started to decline and things got worse,” she told ABC4, adding that it caused “most” of her health problems, including not being able to walk.
As the Utah mom explained on her GoFundMe, the diagnosis caused “so many other underlying issues,” including rapid weight gain and swelling, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, “moon face,” muscle and bone deterioration, and more.
“Since my diagnosis, I have been able to continue working full time, taking only 2 months off at the beginning for surgeries, biopsies, appointments, radiation and chemotherapy treatments,” she wrote. “All this while still being a full time mom. I have an AMAZING support system, but over time it has taken a huge toll on all of us financially, emotionally, mentally and physically.”
In an update to her campaign, citing an oncologist appointment on Sept. 18, Erika wrote that she has since “decided to stop treatment because it will no longer help.” She was given three months to live, she revealed.
“3 months to spend with my babies and loved ones. 3 months to make the most of the time I have left,” she wrote. “During these next few months I have to make sure my children are okay after I’m gone. Now I’m faced with the most difficult thing of planning my own funeral.”
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Although Erika wrote that she is “ashamed and embarrassed that people know the truth” about her diagnosis, she said that not seeking help was “no longer an option” for her, leading to her decision to launch her fundraiser.
After paying tribute to her “amazing medical team” — including Carl Gray and Kylie Money at Ogden Hematology Oncology, Steven Brown of the Tanner Clinic and Brandon Fisher — the mother wrote that any funds in excess of her funeral expenses will be put into a foundation for her children.
“It happened overnight. I never expected that,” Erika told ABC4 about the amount of money raised by the fundraiser, which has topped $900,000 as of Sept. 29.
“I never expected a big funeral service or that a lot of people would reach out and help me,” she added. “Given how it went, I’m just in shock… I’m just very grateful for everything and anything that was there.”
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Source: HIS Education