Donate to Aid Merida and Bristol's Healing

Our dear friend Merida is in need of some support and love right now. If you are reading this, we want to thank you for your time and taking a moment out of your day to read her story.

Merida is a single mother of four children, working full-time to support her babies. In September of 2024, her youngest daughter, Bristol, began experiencing scary symptoms that impacted her quality of life and raised concerns with her family and medical team. Bristol had been suffering with swelling in her head that caused her to be unable to open her mouth without being in extreme pain, non-stop debilitating headaches, and constant jaw pain.

As the symptoms grew rapidly and in severity, and after many countless ER visits, Merida pushed for more testing with a neurologist at Children's Hospital. Upon further testing, an MRI scan showed that Bristol had three tumors located in her brain. Bristol was then diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is very rare for her age.

Bristol was then set up with a plastic and neurosurgeon to discuss the recommended treatment for her tumors, which consisted of surgery. Bristol underwent surgery for the first tumor on February 13th, 2025. Fortunately, the original plan for surgery was to remove part of the skull that appeared to be affected, however while operating, they discovered the tumor was attached somewhere else, resulting in no skull removal.

Merida and Bristol will go back to discuss further necessary treatment with the neurosurgeon in six weeks to decipher if one, or two, of the other tumors require removal.

During this time, Merida and her family have faced heartbreaking and stressful trials and tribulations. While she has been resilient and courageous in her parenting, now is a time for Merida to gain the support of others in this journey as she has now had to take time off from work. Any donation, or sharing, would be a blessing to Merida and her family. We appreciate your time in reading her story.