- D
- M
Our names are Stephanie and Selina Monticchio. We are blessed to be born by a woman who has given us a life filled with love-
"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take".
It is our humble privilege and honour to introduce to you our perfectly beautiful, loving, passionate, giving, caring, extraordinary mother who is and has always been our rock... Sandra Valentini.
In April 2015, Mom had a standard procedure performed and without any warning or previous knowledge the doctors discovered that she had cancer. Within minutes, our lives had changed DRASTICALLY. Mom, the woman that we depend on the most is seriously ill and now needs to depend on us, her family and friends. In an instant, we all went from planning Selina's wedding to now fighting for mom's life.
She was diagnosed with carcinosarcoma which is a rare cancer consisting of tumours that can arise in diverse organs. In our moms case it affected her uterus. It is a rare and aggressive cancer. Within the first week of discovering this, mom had to have a hysterectomy with the hopes that they would remove all the cancer. After the surgery when the doctor came to speak to us, we were faced with our worst fears. The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
Eight weeks later, on May 28th, Mom started her first out of six rounds of chemo. After her fourth round, she had a CT scan and was given what we thought was the greatest news- the tumour had shrunk 66% with still two more rounds to go. At this point, everything was looking up. Her last chemo was September 9th and on October 21st we were given the results... the NIGHTMARE was back. We were told that the tumour had grown aggressively however the rest of her body was clear of any cancer.
She was referred to a radiologist who confirmed that the tumour had enlarged and at that point they discovered two new tumours in her lymph nodes in her neck. Are we angry? Yes, we are. How do you tell a human being that they are clear when that's not the case. In fact, there's two more tumours that were missed. At this point, we are not even clear if there are any more.
With the lack of confidence from the doctors, the aggressiveness of the tumours, and sensitive time frame, we have been blessed to be put in the path of a private clinic. With this treatment, our Mom has an 85% chance of success. We have hope and lots of it. It's been the best news in the past eight months.
We want our Mom healthy again. We want to be able to share our lives with her, to tell her every day we love her, to hug her longer, to laugh with her, to celebrate with her and to have her at our weddings. We are not ready for anything else. We need your help. The only way we can do this is with the excess of over $60,000 to pay for all the treatments.
As a single mom, she has always been the strongest, hardest working, loving, selfless woman we know. The effects of the chemo took over her mind, body, and emotions; not to mention the toll it has taken on our family. As a result, Mom had to quit working and between the two of us we have been taking turns taking care of her. Oh my God, why our mother? A woman who never smoked a day in her life, exercised, ate healthy and gave nothing but love to us and others... Why? Why? Why?
Though we do not have the answer, we now have the challenge. In our lives, we were always the people who made a difference for others. We never imagined this day would come that we would be here asking you to make a difference for us. Some of you know us and a lot of you are strangers. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your love. We are at a point where this is the only option we have. Please help us help her… There are not enough words to explain the impact this has had on us. We are reaching out to anyone who is willing and able to help support present and future medical expenses. Any contribution big or small will make a huge difference. We promise you that one day we will continue to pay this forward.
This is so far from easy to do and maybe one of the most difficult challenges we have faced and yet, we have a chance and we are reaching out to all of you. On top of the monetary we need your prayers and light. Without you, none of this is possible.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~
"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take".
It is our humble privilege and honour to introduce to you our perfectly beautiful, loving, passionate, giving, caring, extraordinary mother who is and has always been our rock... Sandra Valentini.
In April 2015, Mom had a standard procedure performed and without any warning or previous knowledge the doctors discovered that she had cancer. Within minutes, our lives had changed DRASTICALLY. Mom, the woman that we depend on the most is seriously ill and now needs to depend on us, her family and friends. In an instant, we all went from planning Selina's wedding to now fighting for mom's life.
She was diagnosed with carcinosarcoma which is a rare cancer consisting of tumours that can arise in diverse organs. In our moms case it affected her uterus. It is a rare and aggressive cancer. Within the first week of discovering this, mom had to have a hysterectomy with the hopes that they would remove all the cancer. After the surgery when the doctor came to speak to us, we were faced with our worst fears. The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
Eight weeks later, on May 28th, Mom started her first out of six rounds of chemo. After her fourth round, she had a CT scan and was given what we thought was the greatest news- the tumour had shrunk 66% with still two more rounds to go. At this point, everything was looking up. Her last chemo was September 9th and on October 21st we were given the results... the NIGHTMARE was back. We were told that the tumour had grown aggressively however the rest of her body was clear of any cancer.
She was referred to a radiologist who confirmed that the tumour had enlarged and at that point they discovered two new tumours in her lymph nodes in her neck. Are we angry? Yes, we are. How do you tell a human being that they are clear when that's not the case. In fact, there's two more tumours that were missed. At this point, we are not even clear if there are any more.
With the lack of confidence from the doctors, the aggressiveness of the tumours, and sensitive time frame, we have been blessed to be put in the path of a private clinic. With this treatment, our Mom has an 85% chance of success. We have hope and lots of it. It's been the best news in the past eight months.
We want our Mom healthy again. We want to be able to share our lives with her, to tell her every day we love her, to hug her longer, to laugh with her, to celebrate with her and to have her at our weddings. We are not ready for anything else. We need your help. The only way we can do this is with the excess of over $60,000 to pay for all the treatments.
As a single mom, she has always been the strongest, hardest working, loving, selfless woman we know. The effects of the chemo took over her mind, body, and emotions; not to mention the toll it has taken on our family. As a result, Mom had to quit working and between the two of us we have been taking turns taking care of her. Oh my God, why our mother? A woman who never smoked a day in her life, exercised, ate healthy and gave nothing but love to us and others... Why? Why? Why?
Though we do not have the answer, we now have the challenge. In our lives, we were always the people who made a difference for others. We never imagined this day would come that we would be here asking you to make a difference for us. Some of you know us and a lot of you are strangers. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your love. We are at a point where this is the only option we have. Please help us help her… There are not enough words to explain the impact this has had on us. We are reaching out to anyone who is willing and able to help support present and future medical expenses. Any contribution big or small will make a huge difference. We promise you that one day we will continue to pay this forward.
This is so far from easy to do and maybe one of the most difficult challenges we have faced and yet, we have a chance and we are reaching out to all of you. On top of the monetary we need your prayers and light. Without you, none of this is possible.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~