Marisa's fight against cancer

Hi, my name is Marisa and this will be the most difficult, but most important thing I will write to date. I am a 34 year old wife, daughter, friend, sister, aunt, rescue dog mom and most recently a college student. After many years of saving and supporting my husband on his journey to graduate with his MBA it was my turn to study, studying Psychology has been a lifelong dream that came to a screeching halt on March 8th 2024 after having completed only 2 semesters.

On March 8th I was diagnosed with stage 3 Colorectal cancer, the tumor is the size of a grapefruit and is pressing against my spine causing me severe pain. It took 4 different doctors, countless doctor visits over 16 months to finally get the diagnosis. The genetic mutation, along with having no family history of cancer and my relatively young age is what has contributed to the misdiagnosis.

My husband and I are both South African, we sold everything we owned and moved to the USA right in the middle of Covid for him to complete his MBA. Over the years we saved every spare cent, we forwent going away on holidays, dinners and fancy dates, we thrifted and curb surfed for all our furniture, we declined invites from friends to go to movies and concerts etc. all so that we could pay for me to study and also one day put down a down payment on a house.

In an extremely unfortunate turn of events, my health insurance's policy wording states that they will not pay for pre-existing conditions - whether diagnosed or not (I've only had this insurance since Aug 2023, and I've been symptomatic since Oct 2022).

So we made the extremely difficult decision for me to receive my treatment back home in South Africa where it is more affordable and we will be paying out of pocket for everything from start to finish. I am a candidate for Immunotherapy as my cancer contains a mutation known as dmmr, the treatment is prohibitively expensive and we've already drained our savings to pay for the first 3 rounds of Immunotherapy. We will be forced to take out a $40,000 loan to cover the remaining rounds of Immunotherapy, this will be over and above our existing student loans. For the Immunotherapy infusions alone it will come to R1.1 million / $61,100, and that doesn't include any doctors fees, scans, bloodwork, pain medication, clinic fees and possible surgery costs. While all of this is going on my husband is still in the USA working and I have had to move into an apartment on my own in South Africa. I've taken a leave of absence from studying, not actually knowing when we will be able to afford for me to go back. The hardest part is being an entire ocean away from my home, my husband and my dog.

The money raised will supplement what we need to pay for my immunotherapy infusions that I get every 3 weeks, scans, bloodwork and living expenses - groceries, rent, fuel. At the end of my treatment there is a likelihood that I will need surgery and my husband plans to take 8 weeks leave from work during that time to come to South Africa to care for me. During this time we will need to kennel our beautiful pup - Lola, and this will also be paid for by your kind and generous donations.

We've received an overwhelming amount of love and generosity from friends and family, and we're so grateful to everyone who has helped us in whatever way they can thus far. I have always believed in the power of community and the generous spirits of both loved ones, acquaintances and strangers. In a way that makes me and my husband both very uncomfortable we ask for you to consider contributing to my journey to healing. Every little bit will make a difference.

From the very bottom of our hearts we thank you for reading this and for you consideration.