Donate to Tricia's life-saving surgery

On March 8, 2023, our lives changed. Our family was shocked to learn that our Mom, Tricia Gibson, was diagnosed with Appendix Cancer after a routine appendectomy. Appendix Cancer is a very rare cancer that only affects 1-2 people out of a million every year. The tumour punctured through the appendix wall and there was concern that cancer cells may have spread. For this reason our mom had a second surgery called a right hemicolectomy to remove part of her colon. Although there was no visual spread noted during surgery, the pathology revealed a different story. Our Mom then courageously underwent three months of rigorous chemotherapy and finished up with a clear scan!

Although she was still recovering from the side effects of chemotherapy including fatigue and neuropathy, she had happily returned to work in January of this year. We thought we had beaten this beast and we celebrated her victory! Unfortunately, this victory was short lived. At her first 3 month follow up scan, it was revealed that the cancer had returned and spread to the peritoneal cavity. She was diagnosed with stage 4 peritoneal carcinoma. Due to the rarity of this cancer, our Mom requires life-saving CRS/HIPEC surgery also referred to as “The Mother of All Surgeries.” There is only one hospital in Ontario that performs this surgery, but will only accept cases with a low disease burden (about 20%). Our Mom was deemed ineligible for surgery in Ontario and it was recommended she complete 12 rounds of more chemo to see if it will shrink the disease to make her a candidate here for surgery. Mom has completed 6 of the 12 recommended rounds of chemo, but the CT scan reveals the disease burden has still increased during chemotherapy. We are running out of options.

After much research, building connections and consults with three other Appendix Cancer Specialists, our Mom made the decision to travel to Baltimore, Maryland where she met with an Appendix Cancer Specialist who has 30 years experience in treating this disease. He has advised that chemotherapy will not be effective in treating this cancer and in his professional opinion, our Mom should have had the CRS/HIPEC surgery a year ago. He performed his own laparoscopic surgery on our Mom and delivered the good news that our Mom is eligible for this life-saving surgery. He believes that he can resect all of the tumours and give our mom the gift of life. We are so grateful that our paths lead us to this surgeon.

However, we are now faced with another hurdle and need your help. The surgery is not covered by OHIP and will cost $132,000 US dollars plus the additional costs of, medications, travel expenses, accommodations and food for our Dad so that he can be by our Mom’s side for the 3 weeks that she is expected remain in Baltimore. We do not like to ask and we know it is a “big ask”, but we are in desperate need of your help and donations since our Mom is not currently working and our Dad is taking time off work to help our Mom. If you are able to donate anything, our family would be so grateful. We also ask that you please SHARE this GoFundMe with your friends and family and ask them to share and support if they can. We appreciate all of the continued love, support and prayers. If you know our Mom, you know that she is a strong woman who will fight like no other and we desperately want to have her around for many more years!

Thank you for all of your support.

Megan and Gracie Gibson