Save Gayla's Life
Donation protected
By now, some of you know the situation with our Mom, Gayla Derges.
In late October, her plan to be present for the birth of her newest grandson was hijacked by abdominal pain that landed her in the hospital. After investigating, they found a tumor had returned and the diagnosis was one no one wants to hear.
She has Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma OCCC. This is a rare disease that researchers are struggling to understand. They realize that it does not respond to the treatment used for other ovarian cancers.
She had a surgery on Nov 14th to remove the tumor after which, her Oncologist told her there is an 80% chance it will come back. Each recurrence is more aggressive. The usual treatment for it only has a 17% response rate. Not good.
Our Aunt Vicki, who spent her career as an MD, checked protocols from other Canadian centres and this is standard treatment under Canadian health care.
She's checked all the clinical trials for novel drugs to treat this and she doesn't qualify for any in North America.
We have checked out Integrative medicine and Naturopath options both local and international. No stone has been left unturned.
The good news is that in that search, we did find a place in Scottsdale, Arizona that has an amazing track record with late stage cancers and has worked with this particular cancer with great results. They use the newest genetic guided treatments to tell them what drugs the tumor is responsive to and if necessary they can sensitize Gayla's own immune system to fight the disease.
This is very exciting and we're so grateful to have Vicki, who actually understands all the medical language, acting as her advocate to navigate this confusing world. We don't know what we would do without her!
The other good news is that this cancer is not late stage, BUT left untreated it will go that way and we're simply not ready to say good-bye to our sweet Mama. She's young, vital, has grand babies to snuggle and a lot of life in her if we can only beat this hurdle!
The hurdle for us to get her into this treatment center is that it has a hefty price tag. Depending on what they need to use it could be as much as $200,000USD! This is just the treatment and not the travel, accommodations and time away from work.
If you know Gayla, you also know that she had a fairly substantial unexpected expense when she learned that her house was on a landslide, twisting apart and slowly moving to the valley floor. She was left with the choice to walk away from her home or move the house from the landslide onto a different lot. Neither of which were good options. She ended up losing about $600K in that situation and when we suggested fundraising to help her then, she refused.
This time, we're taking the lead and making this happen and she's finally surrendered to the fundraising help.
There's no way were going to let her miss out on this life saving treatment! We're not done with her yet!
We are calling upon our friends and family to rally together and pitch in anyway you can so we can get her to this treatment center.
Every dollar counts and as her mom always said: "Many hands make light work." She was always right about that!
If everyone pitches in we can do this. Whatever you can afford to gift her financially is appreciated! Then can you please share this go fund me with your community?
With your help, we are certain we can reach our goal.
Gayla's the first person to help when she can, let's return the favor and save her life!
Her initial assessment is January 13th - 15th and the five - six week treatment would start right away.
It's pay as you go so we don’t have a lot of time to take action.
I know we have love and generosity in our hearts.
Thank you from the bottom of ours.
In late October, her plan to be present for the birth of her newest grandson was hijacked by abdominal pain that landed her in the hospital. After investigating, they found a tumor had returned and the diagnosis was one no one wants to hear.
She has Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma OCCC. This is a rare disease that researchers are struggling to understand. They realize that it does not respond to the treatment used for other ovarian cancers.
She had a surgery on Nov 14th to remove the tumor after which, her Oncologist told her there is an 80% chance it will come back. Each recurrence is more aggressive. The usual treatment for it only has a 17% response rate. Not good.
Our Aunt Vicki, who spent her career as an MD, checked protocols from other Canadian centres and this is standard treatment under Canadian health care.
She's checked all the clinical trials for novel drugs to treat this and she doesn't qualify for any in North America.
We have checked out Integrative medicine and Naturopath options both local and international. No stone has been left unturned.
The good news is that in that search, we did find a place in Scottsdale, Arizona that has an amazing track record with late stage cancers and has worked with this particular cancer with great results. They use the newest genetic guided treatments to tell them what drugs the tumor is responsive to and if necessary they can sensitize Gayla's own immune system to fight the disease.
This is very exciting and we're so grateful to have Vicki, who actually understands all the medical language, acting as her advocate to navigate this confusing world. We don't know what we would do without her!
The other good news is that this cancer is not late stage, BUT left untreated it will go that way and we're simply not ready to say good-bye to our sweet Mama. She's young, vital, has grand babies to snuggle and a lot of life in her if we can only beat this hurdle!
The hurdle for us to get her into this treatment center is that it has a hefty price tag. Depending on what they need to use it could be as much as $200,000USD! This is just the treatment and not the travel, accommodations and time away from work.
If you know Gayla, you also know that she had a fairly substantial unexpected expense when she learned that her house was on a landslide, twisting apart and slowly moving to the valley floor. She was left with the choice to walk away from her home or move the house from the landslide onto a different lot. Neither of which were good options. She ended up losing about $600K in that situation and when we suggested fundraising to help her then, she refused.
This time, we're taking the lead and making this happen and she's finally surrendered to the fundraising help.
There's no way were going to let her miss out on this life saving treatment! We're not done with her yet!
We are calling upon our friends and family to rally together and pitch in anyway you can so we can get her to this treatment center.
Every dollar counts and as her mom always said: "Many hands make light work." She was always right about that!
If everyone pitches in we can do this. Whatever you can afford to gift her financially is appreciated! Then can you please share this go fund me with your community?
With your help, we are certain we can reach our goal.
Gayla's the first person to help when she can, let's return the favor and save her life!
Her initial assessment is January 13th - 15th and the five - six week treatment would start right away.
It's pay as you go so we don’t have a lot of time to take action.
I know we have love and generosity in our hearts.
Thank you from the bottom of ours.
Organizer and beneficiary
Jana Roemer
Organizer
Lumsden, SK
Gayla Derges
Beneficiary
